2003-09-08
Back to Luxembourg we go...

3:55 p.m.

Back to Luxembourg, finally. Here is a recounting of the adventures of Nick and Cari. To recap, they spontaneously decided to go to Luxembourg for the weekend of August 29th-31st. We join our intrepid heros on Saturday morning, having already been given an account of their Friday night doings.

After breakfast, which I liked and ate a good deal of and which Nick complained about as it was the same as the previous day (salami, Emmenthal cheese, bread, nutella, cereal), we headed out to explore the city and figure out what to do with the rest of our day. On top of the hill from where our hostel was located were the remains of a castle. We explored them some, but there wasn't a whole lot left. We walked around the city, visiting a church, taking pictures of some of the more impressive buildings.

We ended up back at the train station, and upon inquiring the cost to go to another part of the region, were informed that it was less than 5 Euros for a day ticket that allowed us to travel on all of the trains and buses throughout the entire country. Very nice. We decided to stay Saturday night at the hostel in Wilz (pronounced "Veeltz"), which was one of only two other hostels directly off the train line. We went to the city, climbed on the local bus, tried to understand the driver's directions, but managed to get completely lost and were saved, funnily enough, by a backpacking troup of German boy scouts. We found the hostel, finally - turns out that the bus driver had given us correct directions, but we just took one street too early...ahhh, directions in another language, always an adventure. The hostel wasn't open for another several hours, but we had found it, so we walked back to the train station, got on the train, and just traveled around Luxembourg.

At one point, we were in Ettelbruck, waiting for one train when next to us was another going to Diekirch, so we hopped on that one instead. We visited the church there, and the military museum, but didn't go in. Luxembourg, we noticed, was still very appreciative of their liberation from the Nazis by US troops during the Battle of the Bulge in WWII: there were monuments, random memorials, and military museums. We took the bus back to Ettelbruck, but it didn't drop us off at the train station, so we wandered around downtown Ettelbruck until we found our way back

We also went to Clervaux, the location of the famous Benedictine Abbey. Nick had looked at the guidebook and it said that every Saturday at 6 there was a service where the monks did a Gregorian chant. We hiked about 4 miles uphill to the abbey, but when we got there, it was pretty deserted. We rechecked the book, and he had misread it - on Saturdays and Sundays, the service was at 5. We had JUST missed it. But, it was still interesting because we got to go inside and see the abbey (although, not allowed to take pictures) and to go underneath and see some of the pictures and activities. They had photographs of the monks going about their everyday lives, and it was almost anachronistic to see these men in their centuries-old style robes carrying modern weed-wackers, pushing lawnmowers, and riding on tractors. The abbey itself, however, wow. It is the quietest place that I have ever been to in my life. There was not a single sound, and the little noise that Nick and I made when we whispered and tiptoed down the aisle was almost deafening in comparison.

Disappointed to have missed the service, but determined to come back at some point and see it, we left. We found a shortcut down the hill, so we probably only walked about 2 miles back. We headed to Wilz, checked into our hostel, and then went to an Italian restaurant closeby. We both had pizza; I had simple mozzarella and sauce, and Nick had one with four cheeses. Unfortunately for him, the four cheeses didn't turn out to be the "normal" cheeses. Instead it was composed of some of the more common European cheeses, I'm sure, and there were thick slabs of a sharp cheese that I knew but couldn't identify. Munster, maybe? (Becca, you might know.) It was A LOT of cheese, and Nick didn't like it very much, so I traded halves with him. It was different, but I liked it okay.

At dinner, there was a British couple seated next to us, and Nick, entranced with anyone speaking English, immediately started up a conversation with them that lasted through the meal. The end of it is that they have my business card and we have their information and an offer to sleep on their floor should we ever find ourselves in Sussex.

Anyway, we headed back to the hostel and both of us got a lot more sleep because we were the only ones in the co-ed dorm room. The next morning, the same breakfast, so again, Nick didn't eat a whole lot, and I did. What a pig I am!

Nick wanted to explore an actual castle instead of ruins, and he had found one in Vianden that looked promising. We took the train back to Ettelbruck, and then the bus to Vianden. There was another long trek up a hill, and I felt every step. Before leaving for France, I had bought a backpack at Eddie Bauer that was like a small backpacking backpack; it had a frame, several extra compartments meant specificly for hiking, but was not overly large. It was turning out to be an especially smart buy, but between all of the walking, and especially these two long treks up steep hills, it was starting to feel pretty heavy.

Finally, we came to the castle. It was incredible, and the only disappointment was that both of our cameras decided to die about the same time. Go figure.

We spent several hours there, and then headed back to Luxembourg City, where we were told that the next train to Strasbourg wasn't leaving for three hours. Ah well. We bought our tickets and walked around the city a bit, bought some food, and just hung out at the station. We slept a little on the train - had the lovely compartments on the second half of the trip - and were back in Strasbourg around 10:30 at night. All in all, a great trip.

We have our first assignment: a report on the space program in several developing countries. My group has Brazil, and we're discourged from using internet websites. There's not a whole lot availble in the way of documents, unfortunately.

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