Luxembourg Redeemed and on to Germany

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After hitting Luxembourg at "rush hour" yesterday, I was a bit concerned with the crowds we might find today when trundling through the city. We were happy to find that mid-morning was perfect for our adventure and we had a wonderful time!
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We had a nice breakfast at our hotel that was decorated in Ikea colors....white, yellow and blue. Then caught a bus into the center of the city, to the "old town" section. Luxembourg was basically one huge fortress with two large gorges. It's really pretty cool to see.

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First we stopped at the Dukes' Palace.




Then we walked over to the Notre-Dame Church. (which has been renamed like 5 times)

They are very serious about their organs here!

I think this was the sarcophagus of John the Blind, Count of Luxembourg and King of Bohemia?

Crypt of the Bishops and ducal family. (this crypt and the sarcophagus are both underneath the church, so you travel down a couple flight of stairs in to these chambers and they are the size of a church themselves)

Cool door.

One entrance to the cathedral.

Eye catching architecture.

After touring the cathedral we walked through a few really cool alley-ways and then entered the casemates, which is a series of tunnels that were created for defense of the fortress.

The tunnels were built in 1644 by the Spanish, then enlarged by the French and Austrians.

We had a great time exploring and Evertt thinks we need to build this system in our backyard. (I think they said there were 17km of tunnels left to explore!)

Next, we walked through the city and on to the train station to catch a train into Germany.

We stopped for sandwiches and pastries at the station in Trier, Germany. We had planned to head south to the Black Forest and into Switzerland, but decided to head on to my brother's house near Stuttgart, instead. We have not seen him in a few years and are anxious to spend some time visiting.

So, on to Mannheim, Stuttgart, Boblingen and the town where Keith lives. (can't remember the name, right now)

**Stuttgart train station

We arrived at the station near Keith's house and walked a short distance to his address. We are looking forward to chillin' with my nephews and catching up with Keith.

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South to Luxenbourg

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We loved Brugge so much we decided to stay another night.

Another yummy breakfast....even our butter is pretty. The same older gentleman stopped in for breakfast. You can tell he is a regular and we listened to him while eating and pretended to understand. :>)

We love this word. Plopsa just makes you smile.

We woke up very late and packed quickly after breakfast, then headed over to the train station to head south. I am so glad we got the first class tickets for the train. It is incredibly peaceful and we have much room.
The train ride from Brussels to Namur was cool, but the ride from Namur to Alon was AMAZING! This is known to be one of the most scenic routes in western europe and looking down upon the small villages, with stone houses surrounding their centrally place church, then passing through the beautiful hills and farms in the valleys, was a great highlight. I didn't even think about taking pictures, but it reminded me of the first view of the town in the movie Chocolate.
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There were a couple villages I wanted to stroll through, but Everett had passed out on the train (it is hard to stay awake with the gentle rocking motion and light background noise) and it seemed cruel to wake him. He did wake up before we hit Alon and we jumped off the train and had lunch in town and took a nice walk around the center.
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Doesn't the guy on the right remind you of......
This guy..................
You can always see the steeple of the local cathedral, but we were worried there would be a crowd when we saw all the cars around it.

Fortunately, we had the place to ourselves. Very quiet and quite impressive.

Check out the pipes on that organ!

After Alon, we took the train into Luxembourg. I did not realize the size of the city and we arrived here too late to feel comfortable moving on to a smaller town. So, we are in a hotel in Luxembourg and plan to hit the fortress, Dukes Palace and cathedral tomorrow, then get the heck out of here. Too many people and too french for us. (yes, there is poo on the sidewalks and yes, we miss all the bicycles)

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Brugge, Belgium

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Our small hotel served a great breakfast this morning of a variety of breads and jams. I think we are hooked on the the whole tea with milk thing...Jane will be so proud.

The owner was very happy to show us his bike that was made by a local company.

Achielle makes frames right up the road from the hotel and everything on it is made in western europe. (nothing from asia)

There is a place for the bike pump to attach to the down tube and I love the saddle and bag!

After breakfast, we set off to the monastery. It was lovely and peaceful. There were small groups of school kids there on field trips, but they were all well behaved and having a grand time. Most were unaccompanied (immediately, anyway) by adults. (wow! unheard of in the U.S. right now)

The locals gave us the scoop on the history of the cathedrals and each place of worship had pamplets and placards with the history and significance of each piece in English.

I love visiting the European cathedrals. And the art is dark enough and detailed enough to be of great interest to teenage boys, as well!

We had no idea there was a Madonna and Child by Michelangelo here in the town. The gentleman in the cafe explained it is rare to find outside of Italy. We were lucky enough to have the piece to ourselves for a few minutes before a tour group swarmed the area. (ugh, tour groups in a cathedral.....you cannot whisper when speaking to a group of 15+, I guess)

Madonna and Child

The square was beautiful.

There is lace to be had at every corner and it is interesting watching how it is made.

We had local chocolate and local beer and frites (with mayo of course) and now we HAD to have the waffles. (with cherries and creme)

We rented bikes for 6 euros a day. They have a cool lock that doesn't allow the rear wheel to turn, when you need to leave the bike.

Waiting for the bridge over the canal to come down.

Riding along the canal to see the wind mills.

Riding in a skirt, just like a Belgian.

Wind mill in Brugge.

A LONG ride along the canal. (over 50 miles round trip, I think) The tiny towns along the way were very cool. It felt very good to both of us to get in a workout and it was so much fun, too! You could tell how far we had gone after we had ridden for an hour and noticed we saw more and more riding "kits" and less and less street clothes on the riders.

We rode along the canal for 20+ miles each way, to Oostende, which is the next large town, to see what was there. We picked up some groceries and loaded them up to bring back for dinner.

Parking.

Ah, the gnomes in Flanders have a sense of humor!

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Senior Trip

I decided to take Everett to Europe for his senior trip. Shey took us to the airport on Sunday and we got on the first flight of the day to Amsterdam. There was only one seat in first class, so it went to Everett, as it is his gift.

We arrived in Amsterdam very early Monday morning and took the train from the airport to downtown. We decided to get a tram ticket for the day and walk about the city with the locals and soak up the culture and architecture. Bikes are EVERYWHERE here!! (as most places other places in the world)







We enjoyed sitting and watching all the different types of bikes with every walk of person riding them. We also checked out the house boats on the canal and several of the cool cathedrals. We walked down to the place where Anne Frank was hidden during World War II, but the line was crazy and we decided, very quickly, to avoid that tourist trap.





. We then strolled past the Van Gogh museum and noted the line was very short. We went in and enjoyed the large collection of his work….and the a/c and checking our backpacks, so our shoulders could have a break. :>)

We ate chocolate and snacked all day on the goodies from the shops in the train station. There are wooden shoes, windmills in the city, lots of chocolate shops and hash shops out the wazoo.

We soon had had enough of the city and headed to the train station much earlier than I expected. Ah, a train though the country side is amazing. We are riding with the locals and giving ourselves a lovely tour of the huge selection of community gardens. The farms are amazingly green and well organized. Every apartment building has a community garden behind it with divided sections for the tenants.

Everett passed out for part of train ride. Air conditioned and very comfortable.

Train station in Antwerp.
We stopped in Antwerp, which was another large city, and strolled around a bit before continuing on toward Brugge.

Once in Brugge I was worried about finding a place to stay during peak season, so we set out to find a small hotel. On the first street we walked down, we came across this perfect little family owned budget hotel.

Serious double windows!
After visiting with the hotel owners and a few older local gentlemen, we strolled through the town streets in search of a small cafe.

Canals are everywhere here. (even through the farm land that we saw by train)



We settled on a small cafe serving fish and chips and strong beer, which meant I would sleep very good tonight!

We are thoroughly enjoying our time here and are looking forward to a relaxing day of visiting the monastery and riding bikes tomorrow. (hint: The hotel owner has a locally made steel framed bike, which he is proud to say has all components created locally in western europe.....in other words, nothing from asia. That should make Shey drool!)

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