Vianden, Luxembourg 4-9 through 4-11

Thursday, 4-09-08 -We arrived safe and sound at Frankfurt Airport and with the help of mappy.com actually arrived, directly to Vianden - route nos. were a little different but directions were perfect.

Burg Eltz

Enroute from Frankfurt to Vianden, we saw lots of snow. Hopefully that will be melting soon.

Vianden is a cute, quaint city with cobblestone streets on the River Our. Chateau (Castle) Vianden is atop a hill overlooking the town. We are staying at a former monastery, Hotel Heintz. We have a nice room with balcony overlooking the city walls. English is spoken here by most but not at the grocery store. Since we have been here we have managed to locate an ATM, a grocery for wine, cheese and crackers, and water. We are off to locate some fine food for dinner.

Castle in Clervaux

Thursday, 4-10-08 - This morning we trudged uphill to the castle and toured the castle, unguided - the castle was wonderful and especially nice at night when lit up.  Then we were off in our Skoda Roomster to the towns of Echternach, Clervaux, Dierkirch, and Ettlebruck - some or all of which were heavily involved in WWII.  Saw a US Sherman tank involved in the war at the Chateau in Clervaux.  These towns are all in the central or NE part of Luxembourg.  Luxembourg is a very small country - only 999 square miles.  The castle in Chervaux was used by the US troops during the war.  We drove up to a monastery in Clervaux and to a quaint town along a river, Esch-Sur-Sure - not much there.  Most of these towns were walled cities and either have a castle or castle ruins.

Castle Vianden

After dinner at Hotel Petry, we walked down to the river to view the castle at night - awesome - like a fairy tale - all lit up.  On the way back uphill to our hotel, we stopped at the Trinitarian Church next to our hotel as we heard the choir practicing.  Very, very old church and the acoustics were just wonderful - like nothing we have ever heard in our churches!

Friday, 4-11-08 - Today we awoke early and we off, back to Germany, to visit Rick Steves' favorite castle in Europe, Burg Eltz.  We missed a turn, as we found out the next day, due to a change in the entrance ramp to a highway we wanted - not all bad as we ended up driving along the swollen Mosel River and got to see the young vineyards planted along the sides of the hills.

Castle Vianden at Night

Parked and walked to the castle, rather than hiking the one mile path as we had planned, as it had rained and the path would be muddy and slick.  The downhill trek to the castle was awesome, curvy and steep, and then the castle, which has never been destroyed and is several hundreds of years old, came into view - breathtaking!  Needless to say, after visiting the castle, which should not be missed if you are ever in the area, we paid 1.50 euros for a ride up the hill to our car!

We then tried to take our hotel host's suggestion to visit Trier, Germany, but without prior planning (maps, directions, etc.), and after much driving around in circles (the scenic route!) unable to find the Porta Nigra (not very well marked), we drove on to Luxembourg City.  Spent the afternoon in LC - took a tour of the Grund area - the casemates, etc., and walked around the old city.  It was cold and windy and we weren't impressed with LC, so we headed back to Vianden to have dinner at our hotel.  The small towns in Luxembourg are the best, especially, Vianden, so if you are ever there, don't miss it! 

Hotel Heintz

Notes on Luxembourg - people are rather stoic, like the Germans and not particularly outgoing.  Houses and towns are all neat and clean.

Vianden, Luxembourg #1

Vianden, Luxembourg #2