Ascension is a public holiday in the Netherlands. Being on a Thursday I got the Friday off as a bridge day. Four days off, it was too good to miss. With a forecast of wonderful weather what more could we want? We decided to go walking so took a train on Wednesday afternoon to Luxembourg.
So we set off with backpacks containing minimal clothing, the lightest tent in the collection and enthusiasm at the thought of spending a long weekend walking. We arrived in Luxembourg in the early evening and after a cheap bite at the Youth Hostel we strolled around part of the walls and old city of Luxembourg. The hostel is nicely sited on the edge of the lower town, a short walk from the Railway Station and the upper town. From its terrace there was a nice view of the impressively defensible position of the upper town. It hardly needed city walls, the river that ran between the lower and upper towns had carved such a bluff that would sorely challenge a sieging army.
We hadn't done much preparation for the trip, we didn't hve time to research a route and couldn't find a suitable walking guide in the Amsterdam public library the evening before we left. It was too late get any information the evening of our arrival, everywhere was shut, and with the following day being Ascension only the National Tourist Office in the Railway Station was open. Fortunately they had a couple of brochures which appeared to provide enough clues on where to start walking. We hoped that once shops opened the following day we'd be able to find some more comprehensive information.
We took a train to the middle of the country, to Ettelbruck, a short 20 minutes from Luxembourg. We need not have worried, once we got going on the path we found that the path was so well marked that we didn't need a map.
We started with the Victor Hugo path, which ran for 24km from Ettelbruck to Vianden. Apparently the great man spent some time in Vianden. The path wound its way through farmland, sometimes taking paved public roads and sometimes forest paths. Hills were always present. We rather over estimated our capabilities which combined with an expectation that we'd find places selling food along the way made the day quite a challenge. At around 5pm we were still quite a bit short of our destination. We would have stopped at a campsite at Walsdorf, along the way but for the fact that their restaurant was closed for the holiday, though they kindly said that they'd open their shop for us. The thought of a dinner comprising of biscuits depressed me, so we we decided to press on. While we were thinking about this the thunder that we'd been hearing at a distance got a bit closer and the heavens opened. After a packet of snacks the rain had stopped and we continued on, arriving in Vianden at nearly 8pm.
It was quite a spectacular town with a wonderfully restored castle in the centre. The heavens opened another time, again we had shelter, this time eating a nice pizza dinner. As the sun went down we set up our little tent in a campsite dominated by Dutch campers on the river, from which we had a fine view of the castle.
The following day we had a picnic breakfast by the river in town. We stocked up with food to avoid the previous day's shortage. From Vianden we took another long distance path, the Charles Mathieu path which went as far as Wiltz. We took it as far as Kautenbach, about 22km away. Again it was a bit too long and the soles of our feet we were beginning to complain about the weight of our packs and the distances we were walking. Even so it was lovely walking, up and down hills with hardly another person encountered.
On our final day we followed the North path to Clervaux which went more or less parallel to the North-South railway line, though we were mostly in the hills above the valley. It was a more popular path than the previous days one, with more people as well as places to serve them on it.
From Clervaux we took a train South to Mersch and camped there, the following morning we took the train back to Amsterdam via Luxembourg and Brussels. Unfortunately they were working in the train line and it took forever to arrive home. Which took nothing away from a fabulous weekend!
When we stopped for refreshments along the way we found surprisingly unenthusiastic welcomes at the cafes. We came away with he conclusion that as beautiful as Luxembourg was the people were a bit closed.
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