Grand Hotel de Vianden

... reached Mr. Gillissen’s home, not far into Belgium, about 4:00 pm, just as he arrived home. He is being tested now for cancer of the esophagus, and has a number of other difficult situations he’s juggling too, like having to recycle into a new line of work and look for a new position. We spent about two hours together. He explained his various situations, and I tried to offer encouragement and what counsel I could. He will keep me informed when he receives the results. "The ...

We were on the road by 10 am, just as planned. Traffic is a bit heavier than we would like, but you work with what you're handed. It&#8217;s supposed to take about 6 hours to get to Luxembourg. We&#8217;ll see how it progresses.<br><br>We passed through Belgium at 1:15 pm. We passed through Luxembourg at 2:15 pm. We stopped along the way to have some lunch at 3 pm because I was very hungry. It was a very small town ...

Of course I needed to visit Luxembourg, hiding away there between France, Germany and Belgium. It is the fifith smallest country in the world. It is very hilly and surrounded by trees. The hostel is down at the bottom of a cliff, yay! The city of course is quite small, but it is surrounded by ruins and forest which makes it quite a unique city in amongst the hustle and crowds of all the other major cities. The people there speak French and their own language, Luxembourgish I suppose.

... U.S. troops were stationed on the opposite side of the Sauer River and explained how they liberated the town (and the rest of Luxembourg!) from German control. It was pretty neat. I unfortunately did not get any pictures, but it looked very similar to many of the other towns in Luxembourg. After Diekirch, we split up again into our orientation groups. My groups visited the Chateau de ...

... minds ready to get the heck off that bus!! Vianden was one of the cutest little towns I had been to up to this point. The streets were severely narrow, I mean we are talking if a car drove down the street you were walking on they would have to stop and wait until you got to a side street you could turn onto while they preceded down the street you were just on. There were adorable little cottages and the ...

... Owain (thank you!) he has been helping me learn to use the settings properly! The castle has been used in a lot of videos including 'shadow of a vampire' and Dracula. I can't remember all the others but there is a room inside with photos of all the famous visitors and film shoots. We escaped most of the rain while inside the castle but I was glad I had my waterproof and hiking boots in between - I looked a state but I was warm and dry! There is ...

... home of St. Willibrord. We saw his tomb in the Basilica and thought of Mom. The town was charming. Tomorrow we will see Luxembourg city and hopefully spend some time in Germany. Have not been able to get either phone card to work at the hotel and there apparently are no pay phones in this tiny village. Love to all, Mary/Mom

Setting off at the obscenely early hour of 6.30, my hiking maps came in ever so useful as I walked to Vianden, some 40km (ish) distant. An extremely nice walk, first through the Mullerthal area and then out into the rolling fields of the Luxembourg Ardennes. Hard to believe some of the things that happened in such a peaceful area during WW2. Many information posts and monuments along the way testified to the thousands that died ...

... small country, all the cartoons on TV and in the newspaper seemed to not have words, just gestures and sound. The weather was kind of grey, the food was good. We discovered Croque Monsieurs (like grilled cheese sandwiches with ham -delish!)

... Casemates - tunnels and chambers dug to further fortify Luxembourg city. Saw Notre Dame church and walked along the park at the bottom of the valley where we found an old church built into the side of the hill. Luxembourg is a beautiful medieval valley.