Bells and castles and the grocery store

Last night I learned about a local custom: church bells.

I heard them during the day, and I thought, oh how nice, a little music for my afternoon. We had been warned that the bells are a nuisance, but I was sure that they would only add color to this magical experience.

But here’s the thing about the bells: at midnight, they ring sixteen times. and they continue to ring every 15 minutes overnight.

Last night we went to bed around 9 o’clock because of jet lag. But we were awoken at midnight by a symphony of brass evil.

Every fifteen minutes, they ring to tell you that 15 minutes have passed. At every hour, they ring four times to tell you that 15 minutes has passed four times, and then they ring a different bell to tell you how many hours into the day you are. So twelve midnight = sixteen bells.

Apparently this is just a local custom and has been forever.

I don’t understand why. I get if they rang every hour, or every mass. But why did 12th century peasants need to know whether it was 2:45 or 2:30?

But I’m done complaining, because today we saw not one but two castles.

This is the castle that pops up when you google “Liechtenstein.” I don’t know any of the history to it because it is not open to visitors. But there’s a lovely trail up the mountain that you can walk or bike.

Next up was a castle whose name I don’t know in Balzers.

Another fun thing I did today was go to the grocery store. Luckily for me, most items are labeled in German, Italian, and French (because those are all official Swiss languages). So between my terrible French, my terrible German, and my medium Spanish, I can usually figure out what I’m looking at. Among other things, I bought a twelve pack of Budget Energy Drink (which is RedBull).

Much to my surprise, everyone here is quite friendly. Strangers smile at you and say “Hoi” when they see you walking (or maybe they saying Hi to the dog and not to me).

My favorite stranger greeting was an older man on a moped, playing polka, with his dachshund on a leash. Back in Texas we had a neighbor who would drive around on a golf cart with his golden retriever, so this felt like a little Liechtenstein version of that.