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Published: March 18th 2012
Shiny balls
The Atomium, BrusselsHaving had a nice, long sleep-in on monday to recover from the weekend's Levenslied festivities, Roel's mum was nice enough to drive me back to the train station in Den Bosch for my train to Roosendaal, where I then had to switch trains for the trip to Brussels in Belgium - my sixth country so far! And without even knowing it until I stepped off the train in Brussels, I had managed to coincide my arrival with Belgium's national day of celebration - July 21st! So after finding my hostel and then going for a brief walk to orientate myself, I followed the rest of the population of Brussels to the Place de Palais, for a twenty minute fireworks spectacular set to classical music in front of the royal palace!
Tuesday I was up early - so I could catch the complimentary hostel breakfast before nine o'clock - before setting out on another marathon walk to explore Brussels. Starting out with the nearby Garden Botanique, I ventured past St.Michel's Cathedral and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier; to the imposing Royal Palace and the impressive Grand Place - which is a market square from the fifteenth century surrounded by magnificent
Aquatic centrepiece
Water feature in Brussels old guildhalls in the centre of the city. From such grandeur it was quite amusing to find one of Brussels' most well-known attractions, the Mannekin Pis fountain (a statue of a little boy peeing in a pool) nearby, given that the statue is no more than thirty or forty centimetres in height!
From there I passed an old fortress tower, a couple of old churches (just a typical day in Europe, really!) and the massive Palace of Justice; before hopping on the metro and heading out to probably Belgium's most famous building - the Atomium - which is a model of an iron molecule enlarged 165 million times, and was built for the world exposition in Brussels fifty years ago. Another metro took me out to the other side of the city where a massive city gate stands (with a highway running under it), and from there a series of parks led me back towards the city.
Following all of this exertion I didn't get out of bed until midday on wednesday, although I'd more than made up for it by the time I got back to bed - eighteen hours later! I had first caught the train
A splash of colour
Canalside decoration in Ghent to Ghent - Belgium's third-largest city - about fifty kilometres away, where expecting a laid-back, non-touristy sort of town I was shocked to find the streets packed with people - that is until I realized that I had arrived in the middle of a ten-day music and cuture festival that happens to be the biggest of it's kind in Belgium!
Unfortunately all of the markets, stages and, worse still - people - made the town seem cramped for space and difficult to get a good look at; so being the unsociable shit that I am I made the long trek back to the central station and caught another train to Bruges, about another fifty kilometres away. This time I was expecting an over-crowded tourist trap, yet found the town so quaint and picturesque that I could easily forgive all of the other tourists for being there; and unlike in Ghent there weren't so many people as to make the town seem cluttered.
So having spent an enjoyable couple of hours walking around Bruges, which like so many other European towns is ringed by canals - only done so with a little more style in Bruges - I found
Postcard from Bruges
Cute canal running through the town centre a little out-of-the-way corner store with a couple of computers and spent the next two hours uploading my latest photos and sending the latest round of e-mails. Unfortunately for me, by the time I had made it back to the train station at half-past-eleven I had missed the last train back to Brussels for the night; so all I could do was get the final train of the night back to Ghent, where I lay around on a park bench opposite the station until half-past-four in the morning, before finally taking for the first train to Brussels the next day! :-(
Naturally after all of that I slept until half-past-one in the afternoon on thursday, but with the long daylight hours and perfect weather for the first time in weeks, that still gave me plenty of time to take a train forty-five minutes north to Belgium's second-largest city - with Europe's second-largest port - Antwerp. After seeing a couple of the main sights, like the Onze-Lieve-Vrouw Kathedraal and nearby Stadhuis (City Hall), I then headed to the shores of the Scheldt River to bask in the sunshine like everyone else. The interesting thing to me was that for a
Quiet escape
View from the other side of the Scheldt River in Antwerp city of almost half a million people there is not a single bridge over the Scheldt River in Antwerp, simply a single car-and-rail tunnel as well as a pedestrian-and-bike tunnel that run underneath the river.
So sure enough I walked the length of the pedestrian-only Sint Anna Tunnel, and wound up with a great view looking back towards the city from the other side. (In fact, from what I've heard, that's the only reason that anyone would want to cross to the other side!) Unfortunately though the amount of walking that I've done recently and the new sandals that I'm still getting used to had by now conspired against me, so after stopping to enjoy the view - as well as a tasty Belgian beer - I hobbled back underneath the river and through the city to the grand central station for my train back to Brussels. And after resting my weary feet and filling my aching belly at a Korean restaurant just off the Grand Place, I finally headed back to the hostel for my fourth and final night in Belgium.
Friday started with another international train journey, this time from Brussels in Belgium to Luxembourg City
Luxembourg City views
Looking down into the Alzette Valley - which I think it's fair to say I fell in love with at first sight. Luxembourg - the country - is wedged in between Belgium, France and Germany, and is only sixty kilometres across from east-to-west and eighty kilometres from north-to-south; with a population of less than half-a-million people. Meanwhile the capital city - Luxembourg City - has a population of less than one hundred thousand, but despite being so small compared to Europe's other capitals, Luxembourg City has a long and fascinating history.
Having been founded more than a thousand years ago - 963 to be precise - it has been desired and therefore besieged by neighbouring countries throughout it's history; having to be rebuilt several times. Yet the reason why so many opposing armies have tried to take possession of the city is the same reason that it remains in Luxembourg's hands today - the city's magnificent location atop a peninsula surrounded by deep gorges; which would naturally make it almost impossible to invade.
Not only does the city's location make it easy to defend, it also offers amazing views from every corner of the town. Wandering around the old city walls you can look
Luxembourg City views
More of the Alzette Valley down over the edge to the suburbs below; while from down the bottom you can't help but be impressed by the towering arched bridges that span the width of the steep-sided ravines. So after strolling through the centre of town and stopping for a feed and a beer, I took to the streets around the outskirts of the city to take in some of the scenic views.
The next morning I decided to hire a pushbike to get an even better look at Luxembourg City, before hopping on a bus to Echternach, a town of between five and fifteen thousand people - depending on the season - which is situated beside the River Súre that divides Luxembourg and Germany. Presumably because the river is so shallow and has such a a gentle flow, it is extremely popular with German families who flock to the camping ground on the banks of the river during summer.
Thankfully the local Auberge de Jeunesse (youth hostel) was right at the end of the main pedestrian street; unfortunately though it had closed down (!) and been replaced by a brand new hostel out of town beside a recreational lake, which is also a
Reflections
Echternach Lake summer playground of sorts for holidaying families. So after tackling the twenty minute trek out to the hostel and dumping my things, I hired yet another pushbike (my second for the day) and headed back into town, cycled alongside the river for a while, and then rode past some of the local landmarks.
The castle and adjoining church were modest compared to most that I´ve seen in Europe, but impressive all the same; as were the renovated towers in the old town wall. On the way back to the hostel I went for a spin around the lake, and passed a site where they have uncovered ruins of an ancient Roman palace - you can easily see the remains of marble columns and a large bathing pool. Before long - as is usually the case in Europe - the heavens had opened, leaving me soaking wet by the time I got back to the hostel for the night!
Having run out of time on saturday, I set aside a few hours on sunday to ride to a town nearby named Consdorf to do a ten-kilometre hiking trail through the mysterious Müllerthal - a patchwork of forest full of
Rocks between the trees
Müllerthal forest, near Echternach unusual rock formations. Unfortunately after making it from Echternach to Consdorf without incident, I spent over an hour just trying to find the starting point for the trail - by which time I had stopped to ask people for directions on more than one occasion, taken several wrong turns, and even managed to crash my bike!
Eventually though I did manage to locate the starting point for my trek, and before long I found myself wandering through an enchanting sea of greenery punctuated by huge slabs of rock that lend the Müllerthal a somewhat eerie and tremendously evocative quality. An hour or so into the walk I arrived at the Scheissentümpel, where a lovely little stream flows down through the forest, with a delicate little wooden footbridge arching gracefully across the stream directly above a small cascade. Though it was by no means spectacular, I would hardly have come across a more tranquil or serene location on my travels thus far - definately worthy the effort involved in getting there!
Unfortunately due to my earlier 'navigational difficulties' I had left myself with only forty-five minutes to cycle all the way back to the hostel in Echternach, drop off
Tranquil cascade
Scheissentümpel waterfall in the Müllerthal the bike and pick up my bags, and then walk to the bus station; yet it seemed that fate was on my side as I somehow managed to make it back from Consdorf to Echternach - over what I had thought was flat ground, until I found myself literally coasting (without having to pedal at all for for the best part of five minutes) pretty much the whole way - in only half the time it had taken me to ride there a couple of hours earlier!
So after miraculously arriving back in Echternach with fifteen minutes to spare - and having stocked up on assorted snack foods from a nearby service station - I was soon on a bus bound for an even smaller town named Vianden; which is also situated on the banks of a river (the Our) that separates Luxembourg from Germany, and which is crowned by a magnificent medieval castle perched high atop a ridge that looms ominously above the town.
And just for something completely different, my arrival coincided with a two-day music festival in town! So after hauling my already exhausted body - along with my twenty-five kilograms woth of luggage -
Lofty perch
Vianden Castle up the steepest hill you could possibly find to my hostel; I knocked back my scotch, waited for the rain to ease off, then positively floated back down the hillside to partake in a few of the local beers, while taking a closer look at the festivities and admiring the spectacular sight of Vianden Castle lit up at night high above the town.
The next day I checked out of my hostel and headed down the hill into Vianden, from where I rode a chairlift high up above the town and it´s iconic chateau. Having crossed the bridge from the Luxembourg side of the river Our to the German side, I then took a bus from Vianden to Ettelbruck (back in Luxembourg), a train to Liege (in Belgium), and then another train onto Maastricht (in the Netherlands); a journey that took me through four countries in as many hours - just a typical day in Europe really!
I arrived in Maastricht astounded to see not only sunshine but also hills - the first time I had seen either in the Netherlands! (I´m not kidding either - the highest point in the country is only 321 metres above sea
Beautiful view
Vianden Castle, high above the Our River level!) Again I had trouble finding the hostel, although in hindsight all I had to do was cross the River Mass and turn left! So I dumped my things and set off beside the river and into town, though perhaps because it was a monday the entire centre of town seemed to be completely deserted; before I then went for a wander through the parks near my hostel.
Fifteen euros, an all-you-can-eat buffet and yet another Belgian beer later, I was off in search of the Sint Peitersburg Fort - a defensive fort that was built into a hillside centuries ago by the Romans and which hides an extensive network of underground tunnels. Again my sense of direction let me down, and after following the river down and back for an hour I still hadn´t located the elusive fort. After consulting the Holy Bible - my Lonely Planet guide - and setting course in a different direction, I had arrived at the fort within about fifteen minutes; though in my defence there wasn´t a single sign anywhere pointing towards it - unless you happen to count the big sign adjacent to the entrance! Until next time...
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