A Week of Ups and Downs

August 17 - 21 was a period of ups and downs for us, and I'm using that description in a literal, geographical sense, not the metaphorical sense meaning life's highs and lows. During our several-days-long trip to areas of Luxembourg north of Luxembourg City, we began to wonder if there was a flat surface anywhere in the country. In Luxembourg, "10,000 steps a day" has a whole new meaning, as it seemed like most of those steps were associated with actual staircases and other changes in elevation. It also translated to the driving experience, where the roads through the Ardennes in the very north and the Mullerthal in the east had switchbacks that made Lon wish he was driving a motorcycle--or his old Porche 914 from his high school days. The experience pointed out the wisdom of doing certain kinds of travel when one is still fit enough to do so. Who needs a fitness club when the day-to-day activities of everyday life constitute a workout?

After considering several options for taking a break for a few days from the shipyard and boat sale prep, we settled on northern Luxembourg as promising an easy journey to-and-from Toul, and interesting and beautiful things to see and do during our stay. We chose to stay in the village of Vianden, tucked along the Our River in the east of Luxembourg, just west of the border with Germany. Only two hours by car from Nancy, its location would make our day trips to neighboring locations short and easy.

Vianden is most known for being the location of a medieval castle built between the 11th and 14th centuries on a rocky spur atop the ruins of a Roman fort and a Carolingian refuge. The castle was the principal residence of the Counts of Vianden until the early 15th century. 

Left: This was one of our first views of the Vianden Castle as we walked from our parked car on the
road above Vianden town center toward our hotel on Aug. 17.
Right: The aspect of the castle that faces the Our River, as seen during our first walk through 
the village.

The castle is today considered to be one of the most beautiful in Europe and one of the finest examples of Romanesque and Gothic architecture. It was not always thus. It had been sold and partially dismantled in the 19th century so that its stones could be used elsewhere. It suffered further damage during the Battle of the Bulge in 1944-45, as Vianden sat in the Eislek Region of Luxembourg that was at the center of the fighting. Even as the Battle of the Bulge drew to a close in January 1945, Vianden remained under German occupation for an additional two weeks, and on February 12, 1945, was the last Luxembourg town to be liberated. After ownership of the castle passed from the Grand Ducal family to the Luxembourg State in 1977, restorations began to bring much of the castle back to the appearance it had in medieval times. It's now open to the public for a small admission fee; its galleries host special events; and it has served as a filming location for at least a few movies: Sherlock Holmes (1990, Christopher Lee), Shadow of the Vampire (1999, John Malcovich), and George and the Dragon (2004, Patrick Swayze).

The Vianden Castle prior to restoration.

We took a break from driving on Tuesday, August 18, and spent the day in Vianden. Given the kind of summer it's been weatherwise, it was unusual to start the day with low clouds and off-and-on showers. No complaints from us, however. We started our explorations with a steep walk up to the castle.

Our hotel was situated on the main street of town uphill from the river. At this stage in our
approach to the castle we were even further uphill, with more altitude yet to be gained.

Upper left: entry portal to the castle; Upper right: the summer gallery
Lower left: Knights Hall; Lower right: Archeological crypt.

Medieval Vianden can also be found in the presence of what is left of the defensive ramparts that used to encircle the upper village. Originally there were 24 towers and 5 gates. All of the gates are long gone, but a few of the semi-circular towers remain, and the 17th-century Hockel Tower, built as a watchtower that was capable of being lived in, is now used as a bell tower.

Left: Lon approaches the Hockel Tower and walls of the ramparts. The Vianden Castle can
 be seen at the upper right of the tower.
Right: The Hockel Tower and walls as seen from Vianden Castle.

After a great deal of up-and-down required to see the castle, we decided to cut ourselves some slack and find the "flattest" route we could for an afternoon walk. The skies were still pretty grey, so we grabbed an umbrella and headed for the path alongside the river.

Upper left: the city hall; Upper right: we stayed at the Auberge du Chateau, a small hotel
owned and operated by a lovely couple. Well-placed in the old town and great breakfasts!
Lower left: the dam just outside of town had "reverse grafitti"--faces of dam workers were created
in the algae and soil build-up on the dam face by pressure washing a laser-etched pattern.
Lower right: Saint-Nicolas Church, a 13th century church built by the Order of the Knights
Templar, rebuilt after a fire in the early 18th century.

View of the Our River and the castle from the top of the dam.

After walking back from the dam, we felt brave enough about the weather to risk riding the Vianden chair lift. Aside from a few drops now and then, we stayed dry. Be sure to check any fear of heights at the entry turnstiles.

The Vianden chair lift opened the year that Lon and I were born, so it's been operating for quite 
some time. The lift currently being used is the second-generation model from 2006. The elevation
at the lower end is 220 meters, and it's 440 meters at the top. Left: our view on the way back down. Upper right: the view of the castle and the village from our chair. Lower right: the chair
 lift experience is designed to provide photos of the riders as they approach the upper station.
 Paying a 5-euro fee didn't spare us from the "Visit Vianden" marketing promo inserted into the photo.

Vianden also lays claim to being the residence of Victor Hugo for two months in 1871, a small portion of the multi-year exile that he spent outside of France for denouncing the coup d'etat of Napoleon III.

Upper: Victor Hugo stayed in the building at right, which now contains
a small museum about his life and work.
Lower: a recent sculpture of the author holding some of his famous
literary characters. He was not a master of conversation in this setting.

On Wednesday, August 19, we headed north out of Vianden to try to dodge rain cells that were to the south of Vianden. Our first stop of the day was the town of Clervaux. Clervaux is known for its UNESCO-recognized photographic exhibit displayed in the local castle called "The Family of Man." The theme was a focus on the commonalities of people and cultures around the world. Unfortunately for us, we arrived in Clervaux entirely too early in the day for the exhibit to be open. We weren't interested enough to wait, so we walked around town briefly, then left for our next destination.

Clervaux Castle (right and upper left), whose oldest parts date to the 12th century, was nearly
destroyed during one of the opening engagements of the Battle of the Bulge in 1944. The
post-battle view of the town and the damaged castle is at lower left.

Upper: a Sherman tank that was involved in the Battle of Clervaux is on display in front of the
 castle. Lower: Remembrances of the war. Although the Americans at Clervaux ultimately surrendered
to the Germans, they delayed the Germans long enough to significantly disrupt the German plans
to speedily reach the town of Bastogne.

  

As "Napoleon was here" is to France, so "Victor Hugo was here"
is to Luxembourg, even if only for a short stay.

We arrived in the village of Esch-sur-Sure just in time for lunch, a good thing because we were going to need sustenance for the climbing that awaited us. Esch is a small medieval village situated in a narrow bend of the Sure River, and lays claim to being the home of the ruins of a fortified castle that is among the oldest in Luxembourg. Records of the castle's existence date back to 927. As the weapons of warfare changed, so too did the town's defensive capabilities. In the 15th century, a wall was built around the village. As with the castle in Vianden, the years from the 16th to the 19th centuries were not kind to the castle and village fortifications in Esch, as they became a source of cheap building materials for the people in the surrounding areas. 

Upper left: It was obvious that a good deal of "up" was going to be required
for us to reach the round watchtower above the village. Upper right: we're
not quite sure if the yellow foot was indicative of "walking path for dummies,"
or a remnant of some special event in Esch. Below: the watchtower (left)
on one rocky spur, and the donjon and chapel of the castle (mid and right)
on high ground separate from the watchtower.

A small taste of the physical challenges of the day: upper left: medieval stairway from the
lower town up to the watchtower; upper right: Lon climbing the first set of watchtower stairs;
lower left: Pat climbing the second set of watchtower stairs; lower right: Lon on stairs
leading to the castle.

The castle as viewed from the upper level of the adjacent watchtower.

The watchtower as seen from the castle.

The castle ruins were restored mostly to the extent of stabilizing existing walls. The chapel
(lower left) was rebuilt a bit more extensively. The donjon (tall square building) was
in relatively good shape because it had been used to house local families and therefore
 never dismantled.

Upper: old city walls and a tower incorporated into other buildings.
Lower: another remnant tower, this one freestanding.

We loved the exploration, but did find the climbing to be exhausting. It was no sacrifice to head back to the hotel in Vianden and kick our feet up for the rest of the day. The town got some much-needed rain that evening, but we woke up the following day to cool temperatures and a bright sky. 

Thursday's excursion saw us pointing the car south to the Mullerthal region, known as Luxembourg's Little Switzerland because of having a landscape similar to parts of Switzerland. The area is known for its hiking, and the capital of the region, Echternach, is the oldest town in Luxembourg. We were most interested in hiking on one of the short trails--about 4 km in length--near the town of Berdorf. The entire 112-km Mullerthal Trail would have been a bit much. 

We made a slight diversion on our way to Berdorf so that we could see the castles in the nearby town of Beaufort. There are two in town, a medieval castle in a partial state of ruin and an adjacent 17th century Renaissance residence. One of the draws of the site is that the castle makes a few specialty liqueurs, among them a black current variety called Cassero. Going on a tour through the Renaissance palace on a guided tour includes a small tasting of the liqueur. 

The medieval castle, built between 1050 and 1650.

The 17th-century residence.

Both castles were impressive from the exterior, and while a more extensive visit inside may have been worthwhile, we were somewhat anxious to take advantage of the cooler morning hours to hike the trail out of Berdorf. It was also true that a liqueur tasting at 10 a.m. did not hold a great deal of appeal.

Berdorf is a small town of just over 2,000 inhabitants. It is considered to be the heart of the Mullerthal Region, sitting as it does on a high plateau surrounded by a rocky landscape with numerous hiking trails and a well-known climbing area. We had seen photos of some absolutely stunning rock formations, and were definitely attracted to the idea of quiet, natural seclusion when we decided to do the 4.1-km "B2" circular hike. The scenery didn't disappoint, and the terrain definitely challenged us, but secluded we were not. 

The B2 trail was rather crowded on this August Thursday, probably because 
it was still vacation season. There were lots of families, some with quite
young children; dogs; at least one group of elementary age children and their
accompanying adults; and the usual assortment of singles, couples, and other
small groups. The congestion was worst at the beginning of the hike, then
lessened as the "side hike" options that presented themselves thinned the herd.

We had no complaints about the scenery.

Lon is dwarfed by the rocks.

The B2 is rated as a moderately difficult trail. The variety of ways to go up and down kept us on our toes and we were very happy to have hiking sticks to assist with the trickier passages. And they WERE tricky, which made the fact that a number of quite young children were hiking this trail with their parents all the more amazing.

Upper: stairs and more stairs.
Lower: The Raiberheil cave requires the hiker to duck at the entrance,
which then opens to reveal a ladder "escape route" to the cavern exit at the top.
The photo lower right shows the ladders; at left, Lon is ascending the final ladder.

Left: this rock stairway was very steep and a little slippery from the recent rain. We got a
bit "off" on our trail navigation, so after going up the stairs we found that we needed to turn
 around and go back down--more difficult than "up" because they were so steep.
Right: sometimes a "stairway" was of a more eclectic composition, comprised of
roots, random stones, and the underlying soil.

Left: a narrow (one-person wide) stairway through a cleft in the rocks.
Right: Sometimes nature needs an assist to bridge challenging gaps.

The view during our well-deserved, and much needed, stop for lunch.

We were rather wrung out after our 2.5-3 hours amid the rocks and trees, but we still decided to press on to the town of Echternach. As the oldest town in Luxembourg, it had some interesting history associated with the local abbey and traces of former Roman habitation. 

The route from Berdorf to Echternach, although a short 15-minute drive, continued the
"beautiful rock formations" theme. It was roads like this that had Lon wishing for a motorcycle.

When we got to Echternach we found that even a refreshment stop wasn't enough to give us the energy to explore Echternach in the manner that it deserved. The best we could do, and only because we were parked so close, was to pay a brief visit to the nearby preserved foundations of a Roman villa. The villa was discovered about 50 years ago, during the construction of artificial Lake Echternach. The archeological excavations that ensued dated the villa to around 70 A.D.

The villa was one of the largest in the area of Roman occupation around modern-day Trier, Germany,
 and the center of a wealthy rural estate.

After our active and physical day, we were happy to again be able to kick our feet up for a while in our Vianden hotel room. We went for an early dinner, then packed so as to be ready for a relatively early departure from Vianden, as we had to get the rental car back to Nancy before noon.

On the last night in Vianden I finally managed to stay awake long enough to see the
evening illumination of the castle.