Small but perfectly formed

IF you've never been to Liechtenstein (and an awful lot of people haven't), it sounds like a highly improbable holiday destination. Squeezed into half a valley, between Austria and Switzerland, it's one of the world's smallest nations - a 10th of the size of London, with the population of Milton Keynes. Less than 25km long, and not 13km wide, it can be walked across in a day - or an afternoon if you're in a hurry.

Yet despite its eccentricities (or because of them), it's a charming country, and a bizarre but entertaining place to spend a weekend.

Liechtenstein is absurd. The last country in Europe to give women the vote (1984) and the only one in the world named after the family who own it, its monarchy is Austrian, yet its currency is Swiss. Its national anthem is sung to the same tune as God Save The Queen.

It has no army, but is the world's biggest manufacturer of false teeth.

A thriving high-tech tax haven, it has more companies than people.

However, it also has some fine restaurants, beautiful scenery and a brilliant modern art museum.

Liechtenstein may sound silly but getting there from London is ruthlessly efficient. On paper, it looked complicated - a plane to Zurich, a train through Switzerland then a post bus across the border (absurdly, the train passes through Liechtenstein without stopping) but my journey ran like clockwork.

I didn't leave Heathrow until 8.30am, but I was there by lunch.

My bus arrived in Vaduz, the principality's capital city. This isn't the biggest town in Liechtenstein, and with a population of just 5,000, I was hardly expecting a teeming metropolis. However, its setting is sublime, sandwiched between the Rhine and the mountains. Though the atmosphere is sleepy, you'd hardly call it quaint, yet as I wandered round, I warmed to the place.

Vaduz boasts some arresting modern architecture, and its main attraction is the Kunstmuseum.

This sleek gallery opened four years ago and the permanent collection features Constable to Dali.

There's a sushi bar in the foyer.

The greatest private art collection in Liechtenstein (and arguably the world) belongs to His Serene Highness Prince Hans Adam II, the country's monarch. Only our own Queen's hoard compares. He has the biggest private collection of Rubens and the world's only privately owned Leonardo da Vinci.

After decades behind closed doors, the pick of these pictures are now on show, but absurdly (yet again) you'll have to travel to Vienna to see them.

Others are in his hillside castle, which looms over his fiefdom like something from a Hammer Horror film - but sadly, this medieval fortress is out of bounds to commoners.

THERE is one princely attraction anyone can visit - the prince's vineyard.

It's barely four hectares, only a few minutes stroll from the so- called city centre, but produces 20,000 bottles a year (a pleasant Pinot Noir, plus a surprisingly subtle Chardonnay) and you can try before you buy.

Nearby is the elegant Restaurant Torkel, where they used to press the grapes. This rugged building dates back to the 17th century. Hotel Lowen, just down the road, dates back to the 14th. Liechtenstein's oldest inn, it's an atmospheric place to eat or stay. A short walk away, beside the Rhine, is the miniature Rheinstadion, where the local and national football teams play.

More than half of Liechtenstein is mountains, and I caught a bus up to the village of Malbun. In winter, it's a thriving ski resort, with a cheerful cluster of unpretentious shops and cafes, 1,600m above sea level. In the garden of the Hotel Galina, the proprietor shows off his pet falcons, when the weather is fine. A chairlift carries you up a further 400 metres, to a clifftop view of Austria.

At 2,600m, Liechtenstein's highest peak is still another 600 metres further up. Halfway down, I stopped in tranquil Triesenberg, at the panoramic Restaurant Kaimer, for a delicious fish supper and a dizzy view of the Swiss Alps. The robust church across the road was built by a German refugee.

Liechtenstein has been a refuge for all sorts of refuseniks, including White Russians seeking sanctuary from the Red Army at the end of the Second World War.

I could have caught the bus back to Vaduz, but I spotted a footpath down the hillside. As this fragile track snaked through thick forest, Liechtenstein's tidy countryside retreated into the Middle Ages. An hour later, I emerged beside the prince's castle, with the whole valley spread out beneath me. In the muggy twilight, Vaduz looked implausibly pretty, like the landscape of a dream.

The next morning, I returned home. I was in Heathrow by lunchtime. Crawling home on a crowded Tube train, Liechtenstein still seemed comical, but now it felt as if the joke was on us, not them.

WAY TO GO

William Cook travelled to Liechtenstein as a guest of Switzerland Tourism (00800 100 200 30, www.myswitzerland.com) and Liechtenstein Tourism (00 423 239 63 00, www.tourismus.li) and stayed at Hotel Residence (00 423 239 20 20, www.residence.li). Doubles start from CHF260/e175, including breakfast.

Swiss flies from London Heathrow, London City, Birmingham and Manchester to Zurich. Fares start from Pounds 86 return. Call 0845 601 0956 or visit www.swiss.com/uk. A return train ticket from Zurich to Sargans, on the Liechtenstein border, costs e54 (00 41 900 300 300, www.rail.ch)

(c)2004. Associated Newspapers Ltd.. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.