Country #74: Going small in Luxembourg

View of the Viaduct

The Adolphe Bridge




Looking out through the casemates

Vianden ..

and its castle.

As I prepare to wind up my summer ala Dutch (an unavoidable return to reality is currently scheduled for September 1st), I have decided that I need to focus on what is really important. I must use my time wisely and set about to achieve my pre-determined, yet noble goal. That goal: to kick my beloved's ass in Count the Countries. And it is not like I am not giving my dear Shawn a fighting chance...I am the one that planned last month's excursion to southern Spain, which allowed him to add a country and cut into my (not significant enough) lead. So, in an effort to counteract this self-inflicted damage, and because there are hourly trains from Amsterdam, making it just too easy, my friend, Diana and I put in a visit to the wee country of Luxembourg. I figured that with a country half the size of Delaware (51 miles long and 35 miles wide... and by that I mean Luxembourg not Delaware), we could cover most of it in 2 days. As per the norm, I figured wrong. We spent the first day just trying to get oriented in the capital city (creatively named Luxembourg City), the problem being that the city is essentially build atop a large rock along three different levels, resulting in a series of ramps, stairways and even elevators that do not translate well to any map. The layout once accounted for its invincibility from attackers, making it a prized piece of land, but today its chief purpose appears to be to confount the visitor. Add to that the fact that our hostel was located in what is considered to be a suburb (but is actually just down....or what it up.... a hill from the very center of town) and the situation was hopeless. Luckily, it is lovely, perfectly maintained city, so the time spent lost was at least very scenic.

Day 2 started out even more ambitiously, there were plans to visit Viaden, a city in the northern part of the country with a picturesque castle on a hillside; a winery at the southern end and hell, why not, a quick visit to Trier in neighboring Germany. We got as far as Vianden, where we could not help but notice that there was a medieval fair in progress (it was either that or we had somehow wound up back in Tallinn), so all plans for the winery and the inter-country adventures were scuttled in favor of chair lifts, lutes, owls and a really cool outdoor market. I figured the rest will just have to wait until my next visit to #74 ( yeah, that's right Shawncito, you read it correctly...74!)