For a Brit living in Japan it’s a bit strange to go to Europe for a holiday without visiting the UK to see family and friends but that is exactly what happened on this trip. The plan was to fly from Tokyo to Zurich in Switzerland with my return flight to Japan’s capital being from Croatia. I then had to decide how best to fill the time in between those airport encounters. This is the first part of looking back on the time I spent in Switzerland and Liechtenstein…

There’s no such thing as a cheap place to stay in Switzerland so I had to fork out more than double what I was used to paying for accommodation back then. On the plus side the YHA I had pre-booked was very clean and included a fantastic breakfast which I took full advantage of the following morning.

Perhaps unfairly I did expect Zurich to be something of a dull and sterile city full of boring financial institution buildings but I was quite surprised at how nice and pleasant-looking it was.

I looked around the city centre and later chilled out by a lake at one of the many green spaces where locals go to sunbathe and swim. There’s no daylight saving in Japan so it’s always dark quite early so it was so nice to explore Zurich on a warm, light and sunny evening.

The next morning I headed to the north-east of Zurich to visit FIFA; the home of the world’s governing body of football. At the time there was no mention of this place in guidebooks or on maps, and I wasn’t even sure if it was possible to get there on public transport. It turned out to be really easy to get there by tram.

One would probably expect the HQ of such an important organisation to be fairly inaccessible to the general public but there just wasn’t anyone around so I walked in and could see a handful of trophies inside the foyer area and outside there were a number of artificial, sand and mini pitches.

Also outside was a meandering footpath leading to some beautifully landscaped gardens  split up into the six football continents with special plants from each one.

I wasn’t done with Switzerland yet but left temporarily to visit Vaduz in Liechtenstein which is the fourth smallest country in Europe. The majority of visitors to this microstate are usually just passing through so paying a few euros to get a stamp in your passport seemed to be quite big business. I couldn’t resist doing likewise.

A different type of stamp is actually one of the main trades for Liechtenstein (along with dentistry, machinery, vacuum technology, electronics and pharmaceuticals), and the country’s postage stamps are considered to be very rare. The main street is decorated with such art.

I was actually looking forward to my half-day trip to Vaduz as I was curious to see a capital city with a population of just over 5,000 people. It was basically just a single shopping street full of restaurants, souvenir shops and a few museums with a castle up in the hills behind it. The views of Vaduz Castle and the city were quite wonderful with lots of cultivated fields and small farms forming the landscape.

In the distance I could see Rheinpark Stadion; the football stadium used by the national team and FC Vaduz. That was a 10 minute walk away from the main strip and of course no other tourist was anywhere to be seen. The stadium has a capacity of just over 6,000 and I was surprised that I could just walk in and look around.

It was back to Switzerland after a few hours in Vaduz, and on my arrival in Lucerne I wasted no time getting out to see the sights dotted round the lake. They were very pretty,  particularly the Spreuer and Chapel bridges with the latter featuring a trademark water tower that is the typical postcard image of the place.

A day trip to Mount Pilatus was on the agenda the following day. It was a kind of conveyor-belt form of travelling as it involved a 90 minute boat cruise and a 40 minute ride on the world’s steepest cog railway. It was all amidst beautiful scenery, and at the top I was taken back by how cold it was! I simply hadn’t given a thought about such conditions when packing and so was about 2000 metres up in t-shirt, shorts and sandals while others were in warm hiking gear! Talk about feeling under-dressed!

Of course I didn’t need to do anything at the top other than sit in the restaurant and admire the views which were beautiful though often obscured by the fog.

That’s not my style though so I persevered and did the hiking trails including the climb to the highest point (2,132 metres) which was a gentle 30-40 minute hike. Admittedly it was a bit rocky near the summit but still very do-able in a good pair of sandals.

A couple of gondola rides helped me descend the mountain back to warmer temperatures, and in-between I did a toboggan ride which was good fun and gave me a brief adrenaline rush on a trip which was a bit lacking in such activity. A lion monument beautifully carved from rock was an impressive sight back in the city, and it’s dedicated to Swiss soldiers who served and fought for their country.

After a few nights in Switzerland, I moved on to northern Italy for what was probably the most memorable part of this Euro trip.

Click here to read ‘TF Top 10……Countries I’ve Spent The Least Amount of Time In!’

Click here to read ‘Euro Trip 2010 Pt I: Zurich and Lucerne (Switzerland)’

Click here to read ‘Euro Trip 2010 Pt II: Vaduz (Liechtenstein)’

Click here to read ‘Euro Trip 2010 Pt III: Home Of FIFA’