It's tough hearing the alarm on the weekend but when you're somewhere new and there's lots to explore, you can't sleep the day away. However, we both woke up fairly groggy and realized we must have had more to drink than we realized the night before. Oops.
This fuzzy state contributed to an impressive case of indecision over what to do for the day. We had lots of options we could combine for an interesting day. "I don't know, what do you want to do" was thrown out a lot at breakfast!
In the end, the hotel receptionist established that we would stay another night here as there was availability. Okay-cool. We've come a long way, sounds like a good idea.
The guy at the tourist information office's reaction to some of the towns Stephane had suggested we visit helped us narrow down the day's itinerary to include Vianden and Echternach. Simple. Great. Let's go.
It's amazing how close everything here is. On the map, Vianden was a fair distance away. In reality we were there before we knew it. Many of the towns we've seen here are set up in the same way, fortress on the top of the hill where the river bends sharply around and the town gets built up. It works! It creates the most 'gezellig' little towns and Vianden made a great first impression as we drove down into the valley.
Jocelyn parked Gigi at the castle and before going in, we went into the forest for a hike en-route to finding a geocache we never found. Still, our attempt fulfilled the purpose - going and exploring somewhere we otherwise wouldn't have. It was a gorgeous day too so I was happy just to wander.
The castle was beautiful and well preserved. I was most struck by the 2 level chapel. The servants and those who weren't meant to be seen (!) would gather in the basement below an opening in the floor on the main level so they could hear the service. I've never seen that before. The Byzantine Gallery was also quite stunning!
Next was Echternacht which was a lovely little town. The antique market we saw there was the exact same one we'd seen the day before in Luxembourg city. I recognized the gramophones and the french horn out of the pile of tea cups, fur coats and old paintings.
Back in Luxembourg for the night. We wandered around and found a nice little Indian restaurant and then headed back to the hotel for a moderately early night which we both wanted.
Quote of the day: Hey...WE're women! (said when realizing that we could use the reserved parking spots near the door. A great initiative by the Luxembourgians to minimize the distance women need to walk on their own in a parkade at night.)
This fuzzy state contributed to an impressive case of indecision over what to do for the day. We had lots of options we could combine for an interesting day. "I don't know, what do you want to do" was thrown out a lot at breakfast!
In the end, the hotel receptionist established that we would stay another night here as there was availability. Okay-cool. We've come a long way, sounds like a good idea.
The guy at the tourist information office's reaction to some of the towns Stephane had suggested we visit helped us narrow down the day's itinerary to include Vianden and Echternach. Simple. Great. Let's go.
It's amazing how close everything here is. On the map, Vianden was a fair distance away. In reality we were there before we knew it. Many of the towns we've seen here are set up in the same way, fortress on the top of the hill where the river bends sharply around and the town gets built up. It works! It creates the most 'gezellig' little towns and Vianden made a great first impression as we drove down into the valley. 
Jocelyn parked Gigi at the castle and before going in, we went into the forest for a hike en-route to finding a geocache we never found. Still, our attempt fulfilled the purpose - going and exploring somewhere we otherwise wouldn't have. It was a gorgeous day too so I was happy just to wander.The castle was beautiful and well preserved. I was most struck by the 2 level chapel. The servants and those who weren't meant to be seen (!) would gather in the basement below an opening in the floor on the main level so they could hear the service. I've never seen that before. The Byzantine Gallery was also quite stunning!
Next was Echternacht which was a lovely little town. The antique market we saw there was the exact same one we'd seen the day before in Luxembourg city. I recognized the gramophones and the french horn out of the pile of tea cups, fur coats and old paintings.
Back in Luxembourg for the night. We wandered around and found a nice little Indian restaurant and then headed back to the hotel for a moderately early night which we both wanted.
Quote of the day: Hey...WE're women! (said when realizing that we could use the reserved parking spots near the door. A great initiative by the Luxembourgians to minimize the distance women need to walk on their own in a parkade at night.)
