Steve Mueller's Digital Scrapbook

Europe 2002

Tuesday May 21
Luxembourg Countryside

Early in the morning, I nervously maneuvered the car up the extremely narrow ramp of the parking garage and into the only slightly less narrow streets of Luxembourg City. I don't think I breathed until the car was out of the dark and cramped garage. The risk was unavoidable. We needed the car today because our goal was to see rural Luxembourg. In Luxembourg, it is possible to see the entire country in a single day, provided that the sightseeing is not too leisurely. Our plan was less ambitious. We would visit the castle town of Vianden, a destination that would allow us to loop through the historic villages of Ettelbruck, Diekirch and Echternach, as well as pass through the intriguingly named Müllerthal (Mueller Valley). Although Vianden is literally half-way across the longest (north-south) dimension of Luxembourg, the country is sufficiently small that the town is still only about an hour from the capital by car. Vianden Castle is one of the the most popular tourist destinations in the country outside of Luxembourg City. There are few guide books on Luxembourg. This tiny country is sometimes added, almost as an afterthought, to books written for nearby countries. A typical example might be a book titled Belgium, Holland & (in much smaller lettering) Luxembourg. Despite this lack of information, we were confidant that we had a good strategy for this day. The very green and hilly Luxembourg countryside is surprisingly spacious for a country that is so physically small. In places, pastoral farmlands alternate with dense dark forests. Centuries ago, this region was the exclusive hunting grounds of European nobility. More recently, it was the setting for the Battle of the Bulge, the last significant advance of the German military during the Second World War. Both world wars significantly impacted this region. An independent Luxembourg is a modern-day anomaly. Throughout its history, this territory has been dominated by a succession of external powers, including the Roman and Hapsburg empires, the Dukes of Burgundy, Revolutionary and Napoleonic France, the Netherlands and Belgium. Given the location and history of this region, it should be no surprise that most Luxembourgers are multilingual. French and German, the official administrative languages of the government, are more commonly spoken than English, and the country has its own mysterious language, called Letzebuergesch, which is a Germanic language spoken almost exclusively by citizens of Luxembourg. Unlike the more common European languages such as French, German or English, few outsiders speak the native language of Luxembourg. Vianden Just before Vianden, we stopped near Fouhren, a small town of 353 people along the Our River. It was here that I made the memorable acquaintance of an inquisitive burro, and shot some nice photographs of the surrounding farmlands and forests. As the road approaches Vianden, it begins to wind around the prominent hill crowned by the famous castle. We parked the car and followed a trail along the remains of the ancient fortified city wall. The trail eventually dissolved into the brush and surrounding forest, so we backtracked to the car and drove into the town. Although we decided to focus on the town rather than the famous castle, I now believe that this may have been a mistake. The town certainly qualifies as scenic, quaint, picturesque, and all the other adjectives that popular European tourist sites have come to epitomize, but I cannot help but wonder what a castle tour would have been like. Also, the castle is reached via a chairlift, which would have a offered a great opportunity for aerial photographs of the town. The most pleasant part of Vianden that we visited was a combination promenade and greenbelt park that followed the River Our along its winding course just below the castle. On the return to Luxembourg City, we passed through the Müllerthal (Mueller Valley), which is in a region of Luxembourg nicknamed "Little Switzerland" due to its rugged terrain. A brief review of maps and guide books will quickly reveal that it is mandatory that every European country have at least one hilly or mountainous rural area nicknamed "Little Switzerland" and at least one canal-lined urban area nicknamed "Little Venice". The Müllerthal is popular with locals because its lush forests and unusual rock formations provide convenient opportunities for day hiking and amateur rock climbing. The Müllerthal was popular with us because we got to see our name on all the signs. The Ernz Noire River runs through the valley and is traversed by scattered, highly photogenic stone bridges in various stages of collapse. The Müllerthal is also home to at least one ancient castle. In the late afternoon, we began our return to Luxembourg City. With the Müllerthal less than twenty minutes behind us, we glimpsed the first bridges of the ancient capital. As I have mentioned before, no two destinations in this country are very far apart. One last white-knuckle drive down the parking garage ramp, and we were back in our room by dusk.
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