Saturday 10 May

As we had planned to catch a train earlier than on the last few trips we went down to breakfast just before time to find everything still locked up and the girl hadn’t arrived, it was also her first day preparing breakfast so we had to advise her what to do and so had a rushed breakfast.

To save time we cut through the park instead of following the road and arrived at the station with plenty of time to spare. Lining the stairs to one of the platforms were more than twenty police in full riot gear and the concourse was full of Erfurt football fans who, we understood, were going to catch a train to the match. While we waited on our platform another twenty or more riot police lined the opposite platform beside a waiting train. And we thought Collingwood fans were unruly.

Our first train leg today was, we thought, to Frankfurt and we would have changed trains there as the stop after that was the airport station, luckily we happened to look at our reservation for the next train and discovered it left from the airport.

Our next leg was to Koblenz and shortly after leaving Frankfurt the train ran parallel to the Rhine River; passing through Mainz and it was just before arriving in Koblenz that we left the river. It was interesting to travel beside the river in the opposite direction to the way we sailed three weeks ago and it was the section with all the castles so we were able to view them again.

We change trains again and shortly after leaving Koblenz we ran beside the Moselle River, revisiting towns that we had sailed past previously. Our first stop was Cochem and while in the station we could see the magnificent Reichsburg Castle we had visited on our cruise and high above our head was the lookout that we had caught the chairlift to. Leaving the station we entered the 4.5 km tunnel built in the late 1800s, quite an engineering feat. For the next hour we crossed and recrossed the Moselle River as it cork screwed its way along, finally arriving in Luxembourg seven hours after leaving Erfurt.

Now we have to adjust to people speaking French and try to use the little French we know, which is almost non existent and after spending thirty two days in Germany, it may be difficult as we have already found ourselves using German phrases since we arrived in Luxembourg. We later found that French, German and Luxenbourgesse are all official languages. The later is a mixture of the first two and it was declared an official language in 1984.

Sunday 11 May

Being Sunday we decided to leave our walk a little later than usual, so it was after ten when we started. As we arrived in Luxembourg yesterday we saw a very deep valley beside the train line but didn’t realise its significance. Walking up to the old city we crossed a single arch stone bridge erected in 1900 and at the time it had the longest stone arch in the world. The valley the bridge spans is one of the reasons the site for the town was chosen in 963 as the valley walls helped provide a secure location.

Over the years the town was captured by armies of various European countries and each improved the defences until it had the one of the best defences in the world and it was called the “Gibraltar of the North”. So strong were the town’s defences that the Treaty of London, signed by the European Superpowers in 1867, stipulated that the town’s defences be pulled down.

When we arrived at William Square in the Old Town we decided to book for an English walking tour and when it started we found that it was also a German tour and the guide’s main language was German but she added enough English for us to follow. The tour took us past the Grand Duke’s Palace, Parliament House and on to the edge of some of the old walls looking down into the Petrusse and Alzette Valleys which appeared to be 50 m. or more below us, from there we could also view some remnants of the old walls below us. Walking on we arrived at St Michael’s Church which was originally built on the site at the time of the town’s founding, but like many old churches has been extended and rebuilt several times in its history.

The walk took us through several small lanes and past many old building before arriving at the city’s Notre-Dame Cathedral, a very simple Gothic building, from there we returned to our starting point. When we started the tour we were given a very comprehensive walking tour guide of the city and we only covered a small part of the points of interest so we have a good starting point for tomorrow.

Monday 12 May

The sun was shining again this morning so I decided I would end the week of sunny weather by wearing shorts, but the weather gods continued to smile, another 25C day.

We walked up to the multi arched stone Viaduct Bridge and followed a winding lane down to the floor of the Alzette Valley and crossing the river followed the course of the old Wenzel (Wenceslas) wall past several round towers over an old walled bridge and climbed up to the town level. Walking along the path at the base of the cliffs we could see what appeared to be caves in the cliff face, these were openings from the 23 km of man made tunnels built beneath the town and in times of danger could house thousands of people and horses and all the services needed to support them.

Once we arrived at town level we walked back through the old town to the old walls and cliffs at the north of the town and climbed up some stone steps to the start of a series of three parks. These parks were full of people enjoying the sun as today is the Pentecost Holiday and like yesterday very few businesses in town are open and only the larger restaurants were operating, thank goodness for the “thermos” and bread roll from breakfast.

Crossing the road at the end of the parks we walked down a steep winding path to the floor of the Petrusse Valley and followed what was once a stream but is now a concrete viaduct to the base of the viaduct bridge and climbed several hundred stone steps which brought us back to our starting point and a kilometre walk back to our hotel, a pleasant seven and a half hour stroll.