A River Runs Through It

31 May - 1 June 2014

After an early morning raid on the local Carrefour supermarket (within walking distance of the site, if you choose) we departed Bruges heading for Luxembourg. Most of the journey was on motorways and uneventful, except for one blip when, while I was driving, unfortunately, Snoopy Satnav told us to exit unexpectedly and we got in a bit of a muddle in a maze of motorway intersections. But Snoopy got us back on track and the last 27 miles were on very rural roads, passing through numerous small hamlets.

We now find ourselves at Camping op dem Deich in Vianden,

www.camping.lu/en/campsites/op-dem-deich-vianden

which we highly recommend. We are pitched some 100 metres from the River Our, with trees lining the valley amongst which the castle nestles. Idyllic, and how different from the site in Bruges. In the afternoon we enjoyed the sunshine with a view to exploring the next day.

The next day was overcast but warm and we walked into Vianden (5 minutes). The old town is mostly built along one cobbled road, Grande Rue, that ascends to the castle gates.

Lonely Planet advises that “on weekend afternoons in summer, Vianden can get overloaded with noisy fleets of motorcycle tourists” and yes, some of them were there too. Along with a cavalcade of red Ferraris bearing registration plates from Belgium, Luxembourg and the UK. We took the chair lift over the river and up through oak woods and then walked back to the castle. There was a fort on this site in Roman times, and the castle evolved and grew over the next 1500 years before falling into disrepair, but has now been largely rebuilt and houses displays of armour and furnishings.