Lovely Luxembourg!

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Sunday 27 February

Up early to the unaccustomed tones of the alarm clock (groan!). Our very friendly landlady, Françoise called in to say goodbye and to take a photo of us in her apartment. Then we shouldered our bags and made our way through the near-deserted streets (!) to Gare de l'Est to board our first ever TGV (very fast train). Two hours and ten minutes later we were freezing our bits off in Luxembourg City. However, the friendliest taxi driver we've ever met took us in his flash Mercedes to the airport to pick up our hire car. Driving from the airport to Vianden was interesting - the GPS seemed to want us to go on all the smallest roads it could find. It was a very pleasant drive though, and not at all a bad way to get back into the groove of driving on the right hand side of the road!

Vianden is in northern Luxembourg, on the German border. It's a very small, picturesque town on the river Our, overlooked by the castle Chateau Vianden. We're staying in Hôtel Petry which is modern, but has a touch of old world charm to it. It's so easy to communicate here - everyone seems to speak four languages - French, German, Letzeburgesch (i.e. Luxembourger!) and English. On the downside, no-one seems to be able to decide how to say "hello" so they just nod!

We were surprised to find the hotel has an Italian bistro/pizzeria! We both had one of the best pasta dishes we've ever eaten! It's possible we'll end up eating here every night!

Monday 28 February

The day started with a typical European breakfast (at least in our experience) - a huge variety of breads, cereals, cold meats, cheeses, pastries, cakes, fruit, yoghurts and...hard boiled eggs (we hadn't seen that before!). There was also packets of German crispbread and pumpernickel and sachets of pate and foil-wrapped wedges of cheese - this was also new.

Having roasted in the bistrot last night, we went to breakfast in our shirt-sleeves. However, stepping outside was a different matter altogether! It was about 2 degrees C at 11am and soared to somewhere around 5 during the day! It didn't matter though - we walked up hill and down dale for about five and a half hours, without even stopping for a beer (to be brutally honest, most places are shut on Mondays!).

Vianden is a small town with a population of just over 1500 and we can't figure out how we managed to spend all that time walking around it! There are a lot of hills - but there are also so many great views and lovely places to walk - such as the 'park' that's perched on the side of the valley overlooking the town (which we found by accident).

No matter where you go in Vianden, you look up and see the castle which dates back to the 4th century BC when there was a Roman Castellum on the site. Vianden became a powerful seat with its heyday from about the 11th century until, like the rest of Luxembourg, it was swallowed by Revolutionary France. After the French withdrew, Vianden was handed to the Dutch king who saw little value in the gigantic, hard to heat castle. In 1820 he sold it to a scrap merchant who stripped out and flogged anything worth selling! The town makes a big deal of the fact that Victor Hugo lived here for a few months during his 19 year exile from France (1871). His influence was such that he managed to get the architects working on the reconstruction of the castle fired (he didn't think they were up to scratch). There's a bust of Victo Hugo, by Rodin, in the main street. In 1977 the castle was handed to the state of Luxemourg and restoration began in earnest (and seems to be ongoing). For vampire fans, the castle was used as a location for the 1999 film "Shadow of the Vampire" starring Willem Dafoe and John Malkovich.

As we write this, we can hear the tolling of bells - we thought we'd heard some good ones in our travels, but these take the cake. Every half hour, they toll out a little musical number and then at certain hours they ring out a complicated series of 'dongs' that just go on an on! We haven't fathomed the details yet.

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Photos

View from the banks of the Our River
...which is next to 'our' hotel! ;)

Bust of Victor Hugo by Rodin
...on the bridge across the Our

Walking up towards the chair-lift
...which thankfully wasn't operating (winter)

The path through the forest
...still en route to the top of the chair-lift

Vianden from near the top of the chair-lift
(yes, we did make it all the way!)

Comments

[anna]

stunning
all these pics and adventures...such stunning country...have a great time...and then I want a tip list of the best places to go!