National day 2013 in Liechtenstein. Prince Hans-Adam II (left), Hereditary Prince Alois (right) and their wives and children get ready to party!
Every August, the tiny Alpine country of Liechtenstein celebrates its national day, with all 36,000 inhabitants – and 50,000 tax avoiding companies – invited up to the prince’s castle to be served beer by the royal family (that’s them in the photo).
I went along to this year’s event and recorded this about it for the BBC focusing on the country’s current, and somewhat bizarre, economic crisis.
It features both the prince and the country’s leading politician: a cross dressing mechanic.
Sorry for the badly pronounced German halfway through; that might have something to do with the amount of beer I’d drunk!
It was recorded for the BBC’s always-great From Our Own Correspondent programme, and you can listen to the full episode here. Alongside my piece, there’s correspondents finding out what’s happened to the Muslim Brotherhood since Egypt’s latest coup, discovering whether Iranians are the most misunderstood people on earth, telling a forgotten whistleblower’s story, and playing the coconut viola in Ho Chi Minh City. See, amazing!
Thanks to everyone I met in Liechtenstein while out there. You were all amazingly helpful and hospitable. To anyone else reading, I thoroughly recommend a visit. Why not even rent the entire country for the weekend?
Republic or Death 