Ruritanian day out

 So. A whole day in the tiny country of Lichtenstein, pop. 35,000. Unfortunately all the museums are closed on Mondays, so we packed up the van and drove out to the far north of the principality to a delightful farm shop on a green plain, where we bought farm's own cheese and eggs and had a pleasant coffee in the sun. 

We thought we were scraping the barrel by going to Bird World, a free mini-zoo attraction featuring parakeets, parrots and a lone peacock. 

It was interesting in a rather sad way. The birds were in smallish cages and some of the parrots looked woeful in the extreme. The most interesting bird was on a nest just above and outside Bird World - a large white stork with a long red bill. We had never seen one before, and later Lesley saw its mate flying in the direction of the nest. Had lunch of farm cheese and bread in the van, and coffee and toothsome cake at a bakery down the road.

Next we drove to see the ruined remains of an old castle from the 13th century, home to various earls, sited on a rare hill in this long valley between high snow-topped peaks. 

The proper castle of the current monarch is closed to visitors, but we parked nearby to get a view of its chunky Ruritanian glamour, but had to guard our eyes from pollen and grass as local workers used leafblowers to shift tons of cuttings from the verge next to our van. The air is alive with pollen anyway.

At last we ventured to park in Vaduz itself and visited the Tourist information place which was full of the usual tat. Had an ice cream and gave up on the tourism for the day. Back to the campsite for tea.