Luxembourg is a country...not a German city!!!

Sunday, July 11, 2010
Off to Luxembourg this morning. We took the 830 train direct to Luxembourg. We had booked our hostel outside of Luxembourg City in Vianden. We arrived early in Luxembourg so we decided to spend a bit of time there before proceeding to Vianden. It is a really small country and its only like 80 km long so the city of Luxembourg was small too. The scenery was really nice and because it was Sunday, many of the shops and local attractions were closed. So we wondered around the city and just took it all in. It didn’t take long to see everything we had read about/wanted to see. So we grabbed some lunch at ChiChi’s (yes we needed a little variety) and were back to the train station. We took a short train to Ettelbrook and then a local bus into Vianden. We were forewarned that the hostel was a 1km walk up a hill but I suppose we weren’t really ready for what we encountered. The small town is built on the side of a mountain and at the top is a castle. Our hostel was right beside the hostel...so it was a workout to get up to the top. It was another really hot day and we were glad to get to the top. This hostel was however, in an amazing location and was really nice. It is our favourite hostel so far! It was pretty dead too. I think we were the only ones staying there besides another couple who arrived when we did. So it was great to have our own room again with clean sheets and nice beds. It was really well kept and modern looking. So we had some much needed showers, put on our Sunday dresses, had a bottle of wine and went out on the town! Well we went to a local pub and watched the world cup final and had some spaghetti. GO ESPANA GO!!! The culture in Luxembourg is kind of funny! They speak their own language that sounds much like German but is not and they also speak French. So we had to continue to try to communicate in French or use our favourite line...”Parlez vous Anglais?” It was a really cute town though and the people were very friendly. It was just so nice to walk around and be in the mountains. A nice break after Paris but we are ready for Amsterdam.