Luxembourg's Little Switzerland

While I was researching Luxembourg City, I came across a website outlining the major hiking trails throughout all of Luxembourg - http://www.hiking-in-luxembourg.co.uk/. There are 5000km of trails throughout the small country of Luxembourg.

We decided to stop and hike in the Mullerthal region on our way home since it wasn’t very far out of our way and I was intrigued by the fact that they called the area “the Little Switzerland” of Luxembourg.

My biggest concern was that I didn’t have an address for any trail head on the 110 km trail. I didn’t want to repeat our cross country skiing experience, driving around for hours trying to find the trail. We were lucky enough to stumble across a trail near Berdorf after only an hour of searching.

Initially we planned to do the entire 33km loop of Trail #2, but the weather was just too cold and it was already 2:00 by the time we found the trail.

The trail was the best we have found in Europe. The landscape was really interesting. The trail started in a deep valley with rock formations on both sides and a stream running through the middle. The trail was so well marked that there was never any confusion as to the route. We will definitely be back to explore more.

At the six mile mark, we decided to go into Echternach for lunch to get one more French meal before heading home to the land of sausage, potatoes and cabbage. The waitress was so confused as to which language to speak in since we responded to her German questions but ordered in French. She kept flipping back and forth between the two. I think Luxembourgish is a combination between French and German so most people speak both as well as English.

Luxembourg City

Last Thursday we decided at the last minute to change our plans for the weekend and go to Luxembourg. Neither of us had ever been to Luxembourg and it is only 2 hours away. We had originally planned to go to Munster which is about 3 hours north of Bonn. I heard from a friend that the area has tons of moated castles. However, after thinking about how great the castles would look nestled in the forest with leaves, we decided to put that trip off until spring.

I was able to find a good deal on a really nice hotel as it is definitely the off season for visiting Luxembourg City. We stayed at the Albert Premier www.albertpremier.lu which was recently renovated. However, they still have some of their old English decorated rooms available at a discounted price. It was great to feel like such a high roller for a weekend. They even had a little lounge with free Champagne at night and tea during the day.

Of course after securing the hotel, I immediately dove into research on restaurants. Luxembourg has more Michelin rated restaurants per capita than any other city. I narrowed our Saturday night dinner options to 3 places; Clairfontaine www.clairfontaine.lu, Le Bouquet Garni www.lebouquetgarni.lu which are both French food and Michelin rated restaurants as well as Yves Radelet which is up and coming chef known for his fusion dishes and homemade cheeses.

We drove down on Friday night. Luckily there was no traffic by the time we left and we made it there in less than 2 hours. Although the great time we made was more likely attributable to the fact that there was a lot of unrestricted autobahn between Bonn and Luxembourg so my speed obsessed husband could drive really, really fast.

Saturday morning we set out for a run to explore the parks which surround the city. It was pretty frigid which helped us keep moving at a brisk pace. We discovered that Luxembourg is surrounded by a deep valley around half of the city and also that Luxembourg is a pretty small city. We kept finding ourselves saying the same thing on this trip as all of our other trips this winter which is – I bet this place is gorgeous in the summer when the leaves are on the trees.

After breakfast, we headed to the main part of town to wander around. We came across the tourist center and decided we would take a 2 hour walking tour of the city since neither of us knew anything about the history of Luxembourg. It didn’t start until 1:00 so we figured we should eat lunch before that. We had trouble finding just a quick, cheap lunch spot so we ended up going into a seafood place that seemed really popular. It was ok but nothing I’d recommend so I didn’t bother trying to remember the name of the place.

The city walking tour might have been good if the weather wasn’t so cold. I was thinking more about the loss of feeling in my extremities rather than the tour guides explanations of Luxembourg battles. The other issue was that the tour guide was so fluent in French, English and German that he would lapse into another language sometimes mid sentence. It wasn’t a problem for Jim since he can understand all three languages but I’m a little deficient on the French side.

While we were there, they were flying the Italian flag. They don’t get a lot of foreign dignitaries and heads of state visiting so when one comes they pull out all the stops. They fly that nation’s flag and the President get to stay at a remodeled castle in the center of the old town. Our guide made sure to tell us that an American President has never come and stayed in the castle. I think they are a little sensitive about it.

After freezing for two hours, we found a café to warm up with some tea and hot soup. The place was just like Le Pain Quotidien (The Daily Bread) we found in Brussels. We decided to go back there for breakfast the next morning.

Back at the hotel, the concierge let us know that Clairfontaine was not open but didn’t elaborate on why it was closed on a Saturday night. So we decided on Le Bouquet Garni for dinner. We had walked past it on the walking tour so we knew where it was located.

The restaurant was amazing. I now know why only a few restaurants get rated with Michelin stars. The time of the service was almost choreographed. There is an art to being able to provide that kind of service. The food and wine was also just as amazing. The only catch was that the menu is in French and they don’t have an English menu. I am sure that the waiter would have helped us with the menu if Jim didn’t speak French. However, when you are spending that much money, you want to know exactly what you are getting. If I had a menu in English, I probably would have ordered differently.

Since Luxembourg City is only 2 hours away, I’m sure we will be back when I want a quick French food fix and Jim wants his French language fix.