We woke up to a glorious first morning in Luxembourg. On our tour with Ken yesterday, he told us about a local market on Wednesdays and Saturdays which is perfect for getting meat, cheese, fruit and veg and other tasty treats. We decided to check it out and get our breakfast like the locals do. Mark decided to try out some of his GCSE French, but got as far as Bonjour, before ordering a punnet of strawberries in English. Luckily the stall holder spoke excellent English, so there was no confusion with what we wanted. It was then my turn to order the pastries, however this time all of their labels were in German. As I didn’t even reach GCSE German, I decided to just point at what I wanted – we’re such British tourists 🤣 we spotted Pret had some seating outside, so grabbed a coffee and sat with our goodies watching the world go by.
There are so many places to visit in Luxembourg, and it’s so small that you could drive North to South in around 2hrs. We however have not hired a car, so decided to spend today visiting Vianden as it’s easy to get to on public transport. As I mentioned in day one, one of the great things about Luxembourg is public transport is free! I did however have to pay 70c to use the toilet in the train station. The first leg of the journey was via train to a town called Ettelbruck. The trains are double decker and very clean, with plenty of leg room. The second leg was via bus to Vianden. Unfortunately we had the craziest bus driver known to man, who decided to overtake a tractor, and car, whilst going round a bend and going uphill. This is obviously a manoeuvre he has done before, as he did it with such confidence, and we are still here! This whole journey took around 1hr.
It is said that Vianden is one of Luxembourg’s prettiest towns, and its clear why. It has charming winding streets, pastel coloured houses, and of course, the castle up on the hill. The castle had been renovated over a number of years so its worth going inside for a visit. There are a few ways to the top, but we obviously had to take the chair lift. The ride is slow, meaning you are able to fully take in the surroundings, and the views are stunning. Once at the top, there are a few viewpoints, and of course a restaurant. You then need to walk to the castle – we chose the ‘challenging route’ as it was much quicker. Its very do-able, just a bit uneven underfoot.
Entry to the castle is €10, and is definitely worth it to see this authentic masterpiece of Romanesque and Gothic architecture. You can go around at your own pace, and luckily no volunteers that want to grab you in every room 🤣 there are plenty of rooms to visit, as well as items found on digs around the castle, outfits they would have worn and towers with great views.
We decided to take the easy route back to the chair lift, however this wasn’t signposted well at all, and after about 10 mins we decided we would definitely get lost in the middle of the forest, and retraced our steps back to the challenging route. We had read about a bakery selling the best croque monsieur in Vianden, so we headed there to try it our before we headed back to the city. Unfortunately.. they had sold out 😭 so we settled for a meat and egg baguette before heading back to the bus stop, to begin the journey back. As it had been a hot and sweaty day, a few of the passengers were rather fragrant…
We got back to the hotel, showered and headed out for a Maccies. We went to one a bit further out as it was bigger and had screens to order off – always makes it easier in another county! It was the cleanest one we have ever been in, and we enjoyed adding another one to the world tour list. On the tram there we spotted a busy area with a funfair, so decided to head back there for a look. Mark fancied a pudding and went to the churros stand. After being told multiple times to just get a small, he ordered a medium, and there was enough churros to feed the entire country. Although they were tasty and not greasy like some of them can be, we were quickly defeated.
We had also spotted a cool looking bar, and soon realised they sold 100s of cans of beer from all over the world. Mark enjoyed getting beer advice from the owner, and we sat outside with our drinks (I even had a beer! Fruity obvs) There was a very interesting group of people next to us however, and the bloke was really getting into telling them how he didn’t like being fingered 🤷🏼♀️ As it was getting late, we decided to head back via one more bar we had seen in the town. A gin and tonic was €12, however I definitely had at least half a pint of gin, so I guess it was worth it! The heavens decided to open, so it was a quick dash back to the hotel and to bed, ready for another day of exploring.
The Travelling Ginger 