Adventures in Luxembourg: Petite Suisse

I woke up, showered, appreciated the heated bathroom floor, and headed downstairs for breakfast.

The most lovely spread yet awaited me, and I began having a hard time believing this hotel was the same I had booked via a very poor website for 35 euros.  It turns out that Trail Inn is a gem of a place in disguise.

It even has a bike garage!

I ate two sandwiches piled high with cheese, salami, prosciutto, and tomato; apple sauce; a chocolate croissant; two bowls of yogurt with fresh kiwis; several glasses of grapefruit juice; a hard boiled egg; and nearly polished off the pot of coffee the server put on my table.  I was stuffed, but there was plenty more on the buffet table, including a blender for smoothie preparing.

After breakfast I drove down the highway back into the forest.

I found a spot to park so that I could hike along a trail I had identified on a map as ideal.

It was cool and very grey, but not raining, so I set off down the trail to hike for a bit over an hour.

I put on a toque and gloves, but huffing and puffing through the leaves and over the rocks made those unnecessary quickly.

My little hike included caves from whence millstones used to be mined;

and a gorge remembered as the home of wolves back in the old days.

Back at the car, I spent a few minutes climbing a long staircase through some enormous rocks to get to a lookout high above the highway.

Notice one of Luxembourg's public transit buses, even serving this remote part of the country!

Adventures in Europe: Luxembourg City, Luxembourg

From Bouillon I drove an hour east into Luxembourg and the outskirts of Luxembourg City, where I parked the car in a large park and ride parkade and caught a bus into the city.  Luxembourg's public transit system is shockingly good, and cheap: I bought a 2 euro ticket that was good anywhere in the country for two hours; for 4 euros you can get a day pass that is literally good on public transit countrywide! 

Despite its excellent transit system (which included free WiFi!) I managed to get off the bus too early, so had to walk a few more blocks than I would have liked.  Again, I was trying to hurry, so this was frustrating.  I wanted to be able to use the same transit ticket on the way back to the park and ride.  Silly me, I thought there would not be much to see in Luxembourg City.

After some lunch and the purchase of a postcard, I went to the Luxembourg Tourist Office and got a guide for what is known as the Wenzel Circular Walk, which I had read about on another travel blog.

This is a 5.5 kilometre walk that takes visitors past and through and over some of Luxembourg's old (and less old) fortifications.

Given the time constraints I put on myself I did this loop in less than an hour, so needless to say I did not enjoy it fully.

It was still a really incredible experience, however, and gave me a good taste for Luxembourg's history.

Luxembourg City felt much larger, even cosmopolitan, than I expected, and yet still managed to feel romantic and historic.

I boarded the bus with two minutes of validity left on my bus ticket.  I don't know if that was good enough to let me ride with it, but I did anyway.

Back in the car I drove the remarkably busy and complicated freeways out of the city and into the region of Luxembourg known as Petite Suisse, or Little Switzerland.

Suddenly I went from conventional highway to the middle of a huge forest.

It was breathtakingly beautiful.

I had hoped to do some hiking this afternoon, but since I had stayed in Bouillon longer than intended I was running out of time.  I did pull over in one spot where the rock formations were particular striking and spent about ten minutes clambering around.

I pulled into Berdorf, the little village I am staying in at 16:00, and as usual it was already getting dark.  I knew trying to hike was silly, but I put on my running shoes and ran out of the village and onto a forest trail for a bit to make sure I made the most of the last scraps of sunlight.

My hotel is called Trail Inn, and its website is terrible.  The price was right, however, and I liked its location, so I put a lot of effort into booking it.  It is far nicer than I expected; the bathroom even has a heated floor!

I went all out on dinner in the hotel's restaurant, and ate bratwurst with something resembling pasta and shredded brussel sprouts in a cream sauce, with apple strudel and ice cream for dessert.  It was delicious and a real treat.  I generally disapprove of people photographing their food, but I surreptitiously snapped a picture of my entree as a souvenir.