Liechtenstein - The European experience

The Liechtenstein experience

Liechtenstein exchange 2003

For the last nine years Norwich School has participated in a school exchange with the Liechtensteinisches Gymnasium in Vaduz,surely one of the smallest capital cities in the world, spear-headed by Mr. Croston, and Easter 2003 was to be no exception. This year, six sprightly Lower sixth members rose to the challenge of putting into practice their Deutsch, each with a keen eye for fun and high aspirations for a positive and fulfilling experience. Without a doubt, I can safely say that all this was achieved.

The first day consisted of: an early morning, excitement, nerves, lots of travelling and a birthday. The journeys between Norwich and Liechtenstein were
dominated by significant quantities of singing and the consumption of birthday cake.

After meeting the partners and settling a little in our respective houses, we were taken into Austria, as a welcoming gesture, to a small, quiet bar named
"Stop" where we spent a relaxing evening winding down after a long day. We spent the next day with our families, each being introduced to the splendour of Liechtenstein in different ways, the more adventurous of us went skiing or for lunch in the mountains, whereas the more conservative of us investigated the country by other means; James tried his hand at mountain-hiking, Luke at cycling and Rob at camping; so by the time we re-grouped the following day at the Gymnasium (which started ridiculously early) we all felt we had a firm grasp of the local geography.

Lessons were a new experience to us, much more chalk and talk in comparison with our own more "hands-on approach." After attending a sufficient number of lessons, we started to make ourselves known in Switzerland and Austria; taking advantage of Liechtenstein's and Switzerland's efficient bus system to visit various towns including Feldkirch, Buchs, Werdenberg and Zürich.

Other excursions included a day skiing the pistes of Malbun, ice-skating in Feldkirch, admiring the environmentally friendly machines at Kaiser AG (free hat), visiting the Swarovski crystal factory, having a good look round Schloss Vaduz the newly autocratic prince's humble abode, and attending a Patch Adams convention (no comment!); all with plenty of opportunities to get our cameras out.

Throughout with our partners, we found lots of new places and bars to visit, the Crash bar in Vaduz being the most popular with Sam, whilst Ben, Rob and Luke had a "Schnitzel eating competition." To top this, on the way back, we had a Bavarian blow-out in Lindau before staggering on the plane home to Stansted as Ben took the train across Europe to Perpignan.

All in all, it was a very good educational experience, and was thoroughly enjoyedby the whole group and our thanks must go to Mr. Croston for his organisation of the whole exchange.

Ben Serruys

June 2003

HTML text by WHJC

Gallerie

1.Click here to see a larger picture of Schloss Vaduz.