Vianden Castle

Train to Ettelbréck

Today was quite a long day, and I went to a ton of places, so get ready. I started out on the train this morning to visit Vianden Castle, in the far north of Luxembourg. It takes a train, a bus, and about an hour to get there. I started out finding a spot on the train and scrolling through my facebook feed on my phone… before looking up just as the train pulled out of the station and realizing what an amazing view you get from the train.  The train leaves town through a long elevated bridge and there are amazing views of the city. After that, it stays pretty much the same: amazing views. Just stunning scenery all around. Luxembourg had to pack as much beauty as other European countries into 1/10th the size. Just kilometer after kilometer of beautiful villages nestled in rolling hills and fall-tinted forests. So stunning that you feel it in your chest as your heart is overwhelmed with the joy of seeing such beauty and your stomach fights that sinking feeling that it’s all temporary and you want to somehow capture it forever. Like, it’s that majestic. 

Vianden

I got off of the train in a small town, Ettelbréck, and from there, I took a bus to Vianden. The bus winds through several small villages, notable among them being Diekirch. I arrived in Vianden, a little village with 1 main road through town, in a valley straddling a small river, with cafes and shops and a giant castle on top of a mountain. The road up the mountain is full of switchbacks and the bus does not go there. And since it’s winter, the chair-lift is also not running. So the only way out is up, they say.

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I walked up the road, around switchbacks, dodging cars where there’s no sidewalk, passing by little cafes and shops that aren’t yet open. It’s a nice, but brisk uphill walk. I have worn all of my warm layers, even the ones from Russia because it is 2 degrees C outside. And while google maintains that there’s a 2% chance of rain all day, I am not so sure I believe them. But, I’m here and I didn’t bring my umbrella. So we should all just hope for the best, even while looking up at ominous gray skies. 

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I stopped a few times along the way to take some photos, and finally made it to the top. I paid to enter the castle and from there, I followed the little map they handed me, which was very helpful. I like visiting castles. I’ve been to a bunch of them, from the ruins in Budapest and some barely visible stone heaps in Germany to fully maintained and refurbished wonders like Neuschwanstein and Ashford castle. So, I would say I’m a bit of an expert, and this castle is actually a really great one to visit. I went on a cold Monday, so there were maybe 10 people in the entire castle. This made it feel completely relaxed, like I could wander at my leisure.  There weren’t a million people lining up to take a selfie with any one thing, and it felt just very private and quiet. It is quite well restored without being too modern, and it is super well-organized so you can just do the guided tour without wandering aimlessly. Job well done. 

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I walked through the castle, looking at reconstructed bed chambers and dining halls for the knights. I took some photos of cool armor and weaponry. I tend to enjoy the castle building itself more than the artifacts on display, so I didn’t take a lot of photos in the recovered pottery shards room. When I arrived in the inner courtyard, there was a group of Italian or Spanish tourists whom I had seen earlier on the bus. And they were taking a ton of photos because it had just started snowing. Just a wisp of snow, with the flakes hitting the ground and swirling about in the wind before disappearing. It was quite beautiful on top of the mountain looking down over the city, with the snow falling. I don’t think the snow shows up in the photos, though. It was a very light dusting. 

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Once I finished wandering around the castle, I walked back down the hill to have lunch at the Restaurant Victor Hugo. I had made an online reservation, and I guess no one does that, because when I walked into the restaurant, the waiter/host immediately walked up to me and asked if I was Tina. They had a table for 1 all set up, with a little reserved sign, just for me. The restaurant had only 2 or 3 other tables full, so there were plenty of spots. But it felt special that they actually remembered. 

For lunch, I ordered the Luxembourgish specialty Judd mat Gaardebounen. This is a dish consisting of slices of smoked pork neck served with broad beans, all covered in gravy. This sounds like an old-world farmer’s treat if ever there was one, and on such a cold day, how can you say no? To go with that, I had the Simon Noel, which is the brown Christmas ale by Simon.  I had liked their pilsner best of the Luxembourgish light beers, so I was excited to try it. It was good, but all of the Christmas beers have been a little on the sweet side, even though they are darker in color. They’re not dopplebock sweet, but I’d maybe give them “amber”, not “brown” ale.

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Anyway…. The waiter returns with my lunch and puts before me a plate of ham/pork neck with giant green broad beans, which look like giant lima beans. And he puts out a little dish of fried potatoes with bacon. Yum. “That’s not all!” he says and runs back to the kitchen. I’m thinking: Mustard? Horseradish? what could he be bringing? He brings out a little tiny Dutch oven casserole dish and inside is: ANOTHER portion of ham and beans!  I guess 3 slices plates well, but 4 slices would have been unsightly. Or maybe the casserole dish keeps it warm. Either way, it just went from a large portion to an inedibly large portion. In the end, I just ignore the little casserole dish and enjoyed what was on my plate. And let me tell you…. the fried potatoes with bacon were great. Crispy and salty and perfectly cooked. Getting a good crust on little cubed potatoes is harder than you think. But the ham and beans. Something in the gravy, some combination of smells and flavors and textures, just reminded me of my grandmother. Like, it was just the most comforting of comfort foods, though I can’t for the life of me think of anything she ever made that was similar. It must be just some herb or one ingredient. The smokey ham is perfectly tender and flavorful. The gravy is not heavy, and compliments everything.  I really, really enjoyed it. 

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After lunch, I ordered an espresso because I was a bit sleepy from the beer. They brought me a little espresso with a nice cookie and a little chocolate, as is tradition. But then…. I tried to eat the chocolate. I thought it was solid or full of, I dunno, truffly, caramely, creamy something? But no, it’s full of liquid cherry liquor and a cherry. So I bit into it and purple juice went shooting everywhere…. I can’t take me anywhere. 

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Diekirch

From the restaurant, I headed back to the bus station. I had planned to hike to the German border just for fun, as it’s only a couple of miles, but I thought that the towns of Diekirch and Ettelbréck looked just too cute not to check out while I’m here. So instead of taking the bus back to Ettlebréck, I got off in Diekirch and roamed the streets for a while. Diekirch is an adorable little town, with lots of pedestrian streets with cafes and shops, several bookstores, and a plethora of donkey statues strewn about. The mascot of Diekirch is the donkey, and they love their amusing representative. Apparently at one point, while the town church’s weather vane was being refurbished, the town replaced its traditional rooster one with a donkey. But people complained because the church is on the registry of historic places and nothing on the church can be changed without council approval. The mayor had to remove the donkey weather vane. Anyway, it’s an adorable town. I would definitely recommend wandering through, if you have the chance. There was even a sewing coffee shop, where you can order coffee and work on your sewing projects. There were huge cutting tables and a row of serger machines. SO cool. The final thing I passed on my way to the train station was the Diekirch brewery. Diekirch is one of the 3 famous Luxembourgish beers, with Bofferding and Battin being the others. But when I looked to see if they have tours or are open to the public, I learned that they are owned by Anheuser-Busch Inbev. So maybe they’re making Corona light in there. Who knows. The brewery is uninviting, industrial looking, surrounded by heavy construction equipment. But it has a giant pint glass on top. 

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Ettelbréck

I hopped back on the bus and went to Ettelbréck. This is a larger town, but overall still quite small. As the bus approaches town, there is a General George Patton memorial with a tank and a plaque and, of course, a statue. There is also a whole museum in town, recognizing the contributions of the U.S. during World War II. There are still reminders of the war throughout Luxembourg, including fortifications along the Moselle (which is the German/Luxembourg border), the American Cemetery, and a monastery-turned internment camp that still stands. 

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The city has a little less personality than Diekirch, but is still quite nice to wander through, and considerably larger. There are tons of Christmas lights strung between buildings, but it’s still afternoon, so I won’t get to see them. I continue walking and think…. the sun sets at 4:45. It’s 4:00. What if I sit in a cafe and have a cake and a coffee for an hour? Then the lights will come on! This is an almost brilliant idea, and I stop inside a local patisserie. There is a large courtyard with a church on one end and a bunch of lights in the middle. This is where I am hoping to see the lights come on. So I order a choux simple, which is a quadruple-sized creme puff and a lait russe. It sounded very fancy, ‘Russian milk’, but it turns out that’s just what they call a Cafe Au Lait, which I still love, so I’m happy either way. 

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I sat and ate my giant creme puff and my Russian milk coffee and watched the world go by for a while. This was my first time being somewhere where the waitress spoke Luxembourgish *and* she didn’t switch to English when talking to me. I ordered and paid and everything completely in Luxembourgish. As I was sitting there, gazing out the window, I realized….. the lights in the square…. they aren’t plugged in. So goes the theme of this trip. The electrical wires all come together into a bundle and then, nothing. There is just a plug with no outlet. It turns out they don’t turn on all the lights in the city until late November, and there’s a big ceremonial day where they turn them all on. So none for me. I walk back to the train station in the dark and head back into Luxembourg City during rush hour. 

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Back to Luxembourg City

Trains are not beholden to rush hour, and I was reverse commuting into the city anyway. So it wasn’t a problem. 25 minutes on the train and, boom, back in Luxembourg, Luxembourg. I notice as we’re pulling into the station that the windows have the tell-tale streaks of water droplets that indicate we’ve driven through some rain. And I brace myself for a cold, possibly wet walk home. What I didn’t expect was snow. More snow, and lots of it. The teenagers/high school kids on the train gleefully ran off as we pulled into the station and they realized the first snow of the year had come. They were sticking their tongues out and twirling in the snow. I took some photos and started my 20 minute walk home. The snow got heavier and heavier until it was a downpour! There were huge, fluffy flakes of snow falling fast. It was beautiful and exhilarating. But, as soon as it came, the snow left. After about 10 minutes, it slowed to a light drizzle of wintry mix. I walked home, sans umbrella, but mostly dry. 

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Dinner

At home, I dropped off my things, traded my soggy outer layers for dry ones, and headed back out into the night for my 8 p.m. dinner reservations. You go hungry if you don’t make a reservation… I arrived at a bar called Urban that makes cocktails and cool looking bar bites. I’m seated in a nice corner table and I start by ordering their house beer. They make their own pilsner. It’s actually quite good, much less sweet than all of the others. Lacking that Czech flavor, but thankfully also lacking sugar. I had a small (30cL) beer while perusing the menu. Then I ordered a cocktail called the “Porn Star Martini” that consisted of vodka, some sort of passionfruit liquor, cointreau, and a side shot of prosecco.  I’m not sure if I was supposed to mix it in or? And for dinner, I had the loaded sweet potato fries, which come with guacamole, sriracha, and a fried egg on top. You can still convince me to order anything with a fried egg on top, I guess. Anyway, it was really really good. I wasn’t super hungry, but I quite enjoyed the fries. And the tart martini was a nice complement to the spicy fries. They didn’t overdo it with the sriracha, for which I was grateful. Just as I’m sitting here, reflecting on a long but fun day, ‘Today Was a Good Day’ by Ice Cube began playing in the bar. Yes. This is nice. 🙂 

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