Saturday, May 24, 2014

Bonfire, Luxembourg Style


This is how Luxembourgers light a bonfire.  Well, these two fire-breathing friends of ours are Luxembourgish.  So one must naturally conclude that this is how they do it.





Saturday, May 3, 2014

Luxembourg's "Little Switzerland"


Two outings in three days! Look at us go! 

We're trying to make a better effort to "do stuff" on the weekends now that we have a car and the weather is improving, fitting in some short outings after Saturday church band practice and/or Sunday church.  We finally made it out to Little Switzerland today, a lovely forested area in the northeast of Luxembourg.  

I've never been to Normal Switzerland, but this particular area of Luxembourg has some similar rock formations and topography.  From the half-hearted Wikipedia page, I get the sense that the comparison may be a bit of a stretch.  (Perhaps it was written by a Swiss person.)  

Nonetheless, this was a breathtaking spot, and we're already making plans to go back soon to do a proper hike, armed with our freshly purchased trail map.

Our friend gave us the tip to park at Camping Martbusch, north of Berdorf.   I'm only mentioning it because it was difficult to find this specific sort of info online.
We wandered in the general direction of the forest and found a viewpoint nearby.

not bad
From there it was easy to see where to head down between the rocks. 

There's a metal ladder down there to the next level here.  Not stroller-friendly.

The rocks soon opened to forest and a network of trails.
We stuck close to the rocks near where we climbed down and did some general exploring.


There were a couple "holes"  like this, and we saw several serious hikers go down with headlamps.  We just took a quick peek with the flashlights on our phones.
lots of great spots for kid climbing
snack break
Regular Switzerland must be beautiful!
I'm still quite often surprised by what this tiny adopted country of ours has to offer.

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Castles of Luxembourg: Back to Bourscheid

Last summer, on our grand tour of Luxembourgish castles with my parents, we did a quick drive-by of Bourscheid Castle in the north of the country.  On our May Day holiday today, we finally went back to take a closer look.

in the fireplace

The highlight of this castle is definitely the panoramic views.  James, however, was really into the extremely dry audio commentary.  He was the only one of us that made it through all 24 stations.




still going...
before Daph and I gave up
But on to the views and such.







that's me