Mal's travels - A story about my journeys by Mal J Robinson: Day 97 - Luxembourg

Today has been a public holiday in Luxembourg and across most of Europe so it has been a chance to work from the hotel but more importantly when work was finished to get a chance to get out and about. Working from the hotel must be the most productive we do, you get the chance to clear off emails and all those jobs that you need a couple of hours for. I would like to propose that one day a week should be spent with no client meetings and just having the chance to catch up with yourself. So doing this today gave us the chance to have to relax time after work.

The final meeting finished just after 5.00 p.m. tonight and my two UK colleagues and myself set off with a vague plan of where to go and what looked nice in the guide books. Colleague 1 was driving and colleague number 2 was navigating, therefore I took the chance to sit in the back of the car and take in the scenery and look around as we travelled for once.

The first part of the trip was heading out of the city, past the airport and eventually through a small town called Junglinster, a lovely small place, very neat and tidy. The problem is that I could put that about all the places we saw today, so from now on just assume that the places were all neat and tidy. Onward toward Echternach, which is on the border with Germany, at that point we flirted a little with Germany going across the border briefly and looking back toward Luxembourg from there. The first stop is covered by Pictures 1, which was a lovely church in a side street of the town and 2, 3 and 4 which have been added to the blog below. The third picture was taken by colleague number 1 with his camara and shows myself and No2 at the edge of the water looking at the perfect picture postcard views up and down stream. The water we were looking at was the River Sure and we followed that for a lot of our journey and of course as water does, it added to the lovely views we could see.

We retreated to the car and started once again set off, this time toward Reisdorf but on route we found a little diamond of a place. The road took us through deep gorges with cliffs over hanging the road as in picture 5. Unfortunately some were impossible to take due to the road and the occasional bits of traffic but as always these were the most spectacular. At the same stop as picture 5 was a very strange path as you can see in picture 6. It was like a cut in the cliff with steps that took you to the top of the cliffs, we took this and as you can see in picture 7 it was quite eerie but a good climb and when you got to the top quite interesting with plenty of routes you could take into the forest. Probably not one for late at night but in the daylight beautiful. We ventured for a short way before getting back to the car to continue onward.

The problem with the next bit is that I know we finally got to Baufort and Larochette but en route we found this lovely chateau which you can see in pictures 8, 9 and 10. The great part of this journey was that the plan was to head in a giant circle but was not set to a particular route so it is more fun to see what you can just find whilst out driving. As we started to head back to Luxembourg City we took more back roads and the scenery was excellent with more deep valleys and then suddenly we were back on the plains with great views again. You can tell we were enjoying ourselves as we even stopped to chat to some locals as you can see in pictures 11 and 12. Not very talkative and at one point when I got out of the car and approached they ran away, apart from the guy in number 11 who stood his ground as I addressed him.

Onward through Heffingham and it is clear that the area is popular with holiday makers and those who like to hike as there are miles and miles of marked out hiking routes. From the first stop to the last there were information boards seemingly everywhere explaining what route was marked in what way, the length of the route, the time it should take you and even pictures of what you should see on the walk. Expertly presented and it made you wish you could set off to see what they looked like in real life. The problem for us was that most of the walks were around the 10 kilometre mark and about 3 hours in length which would have taken us beyond the day light and with more to see, we couldn’t partake on any of the paths, not for more than a short way.

Looking back from the first time I hit Luxembourg when I saw a totally different side to the place and didn’t like it, now it has been a full 180 degree change of mind. Luxembourg is definitely a beautiful place with loads to see and that is just going in one direction. The city is nice, quaint or whatever word you choose but it is limited, what seems to be the attraction is once you get out, even just a little way there is so much to see and you seem to find something around almost every corner.

We continued back through Junglinster and then back to the city. We were out over three hours and in that time saw so much. We have already planned that when we are here again we will take the chance to go out of the city and perhaps head southwards. But we shall see.

For now it is a last chance for some work before hitting the sack and resting before journey home day tomorrow.

That is all for now,

Night all