POD-155: Vianden, Luxembourg

Our last stop in Luxembourg was to visit this castle in Vianden. I turned out to be a perfect end to our trip as it was just a quick drive from our hotel in the morning and we were able to have a few hours to visit then Morgan slept most of the way home. Not to mention the really cool castle and walk through the town, but that's what the pictures are for.

Morgan met a nice man from Paris walking up to the castle and of course as soon as she gets a little response from a stranger she was so excited and kept trying to talk to him again and again. Finally had to distract her while I let them get a bit ahead of us. Posing for a few pictures with kitty usually does the trick.

Not to far into our tour she tripped on some stairs and the little bottle to her new baby doll fell through the cracks way out of reach. Poor little girl was distraught about that until Grammie sent some suitable replacements in the mail. Thanks Grammie:) Still she really enjoyed the castle and was asking all kinds of questions about the knights and displays and of course wanting to take her share of pictures on her own.

After the castle we still had a bit of time left on our meter so I put Morgan in the backpack (my back and I are still wondering why I didn't do that earlier in the trip) and took a little hike down the hill through the village. Would have been some nice places to stop for lunch, but that will have to be the next trip. Morgan enjoyed it too and was actually pretty mad at me when we got back to the car because she wanted to keep riding around in the backpack.












A nice Dutch guy offered to take our picture. Thanks:)


Morgan was trying to hijack my camera the whole trip, but this picture she took all on her own came out really cool I thought.




This was one of Morgan's favorite parts of the castle where they had people set up working in the castle.

Echternach, Luxembourg

When we went to get maps from the travel center this morning Morgan was telling the nice lady there all about the train we missed the day before and how it was sleeping and we didn't get to go on it... She told us there was a train like that in Echternach if we wanted to try one in the neighborhood. She thought it was great that Morgan was so talkative because most kids never say anything to her and Morgan is always pleased to have people respond to her efforts. After lunch and our futile attempt to take a little nap in the hotel we took the recommendation and went for a little drive over to check it out.

The funny part for me was that Luxembourgish is kind of a mix of French and German which I could hear and see the influence of, but don't really know much at all. Sharing a border also with Belgium the third language of the audio tour was in Dutch so it was nice that we were able to understand a bit.

POD-154: Larochette, Luxembourg

The next day we spent hiking. I had picked out a nice trail in advance that I was hoping Morgan would do okay with and packed light just in case she didn't. After getting a nice map though and finding the trail head that was headed for the castle we could see from our hotel we opted for the shorter one we started on and it turned out to be a good decision. She really did have a lot of fun, mostly posing in all the little caves along the way, but also got tired and a bit bored pretty quickly. My back could only take so much carrying so when we got back to town we grabbed a bit of lunch and tried to take a little nap. Right across the street they were having a local market day with booths, music, and food. I grabbed a bratwurst to share and Morgan ran right up to the dance floor to dance, "I love this music!" The treasure she found was a tiny little baby in a cradle with a bottle for 1 euro that she was carrying around the whole rest of the weekend.

POD-153: Luxembourg

Since the end of our summer vacation was nearing we took a last long weekend trip to Luxembourg. It was only (supposed to be) a 3 hour drive and once there everything is so close together it was the perfect spot to get away for a few days. The plan for the first day was to drive there and spend the afternoon in Luxembourg city then travel out of town a bit to our hotel. Our drive took quite a bit longer than expected with traffic and finding where we wanted to go once we were in the city plus it always takes longer than you think getting ready and out the door in the morning. We were pretty exhausted by the time we got there and there was a cool huge park right next to where we parked so I let Morgan run around playground for a bit. Yes, we drove to Luxembourg to play in a playground, but it was a really cool one...a giant pirate ship.

I finally pulled her away luring her to look for a nice place to eat which was a bit of a tease...as was the blue sky. We began walking a bit and ended up in a downpour, but luckily it didn't last too long. Our walk was a bit long on already hungry bellies and we struck out twice in restaurants that weren't actually serving food. The first place had a nice menu outside, looked nice, we ordered drinks, then she tells me they don't start dinner until 7. Think you might have mentioned that and did you notice the 3 year old? No we're not going to come back. Next we tried just a quick sandwich shop and their kitchen was also closed. Morgan says, "mom, I'm getting tired on not being able to eat anything." Finally we resorted to one of those quick grab prepped food places and called it a meal. Nice and authentic I know, but the poor little girl was hungry.

After the dinner problem was solved we headed back to the place I saw with the little tour trains that Morgan was really wanting to ride. Unfortunately we made it there just in time for the last one to pull in for the night and Morgan was devastated. It certainly seemed like time to leave town by then and we made our way back to the car in yet another downpour.

So Lux city was pretty much tired, hungry, rain, a bit lost, blue sky, rain, a bit more lost, and home. Sounds like an awful lot of complaining, but really it was great fun. It was a really cool city with great scenery and neat buildings all around. I would have loved to spend a bit more time there, but that will have to be for another trip. We had trails to hike and castles to visit and even just a quick city walk was enjoyable for me.