Day 19 (June 23rd): Luxembourg

We woke up and had breakfast. My usual weekend breakfast of Museli and fiber. This time I also had a yogurt. Since the car was in the parking garage downstairs it was nice since we didn't have to head over to Avis and kill time. From my research, I found out that Bastogne, Belgium was not far from Luxembourg so we put it into the Nav and hit the road. It took a little over two hours to get there. Bastogne is home to one of the most infamous battles of WWII called the Battle of the Bulge. We got the Bastogne Historical Center and luckily the weather cleared up. We used the bathrooms first where they were charging .40 Euros (damn, I hate that). The woman there was blabbing something in French and there was an old guy sitting in a chair in front of the bathrooms. We had no idea what she was saying or who he was. We think he got lost and couldn't find his tour bus but we weren't sure. After the bathroom experience we walked over to a war memorial that was close by. The inscription for the memorial was not in very good English but basically said that it praised America for fighting valiantly and helping to free Belgium from the enemy. The memorial was in the shape of a five point star and had the names of every american state on it as well as every american military division that fought at the Battle of the Bulge. There was also a serpentine staircase that took you to the top of the memorial and you could look out at the surrounding fields. We walked around the memorial for a while and then headed over the the Bastogne museum around the corner. It was a nice memorial especially reading the nice words that a European country had to say about the US. We went back to the car and drove to Luxembourg which was 15 minutes away. The roads were mostly abandoned and we drove through the countryside. We reached our first destination in Luxembourg which was the Bourchaid castle. This was an old castle/chateau on the side of the hill that was restored. We walked around and took some pictures and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. We then headed to our next castle in Vianden. This city was more populated and we decided to grab a lite lunch. I had a vegetable soup, fries and a chocolate milkshake. Very tasty and a perfect amount of food. We then walked up the hill to the Vianden castle. This place was very impressive and much bigger than the other castle we went to earlier. We walked around inside and looked at the artifacts and again enjoyed the wonderful views. We spent about an hour there and then went back to the car. As we drove away there was a great view of the castle and I stopped to take some pictures. There also happened to be a war memorial celebrating the American victory in Vianden over the Germans. Fact: Vianden was the last city in Luxembourg to be liberated in WWII. We then drove to the capital of Luxembourg, Luxembourg city. It took about one hour from Vianden to get to our hotel called the Novotel. This was a newer hotel that just opened in May and had AC and nice rooms. We checked in and parked the car in the lot downstairs. The weather was overcast so we brought our jackets and hit the road. The hotel was located just outside the city center and it took about a 10-15 minute walk to get there. All the stores were closed and when we got to one of the main squares a band was playing in celebration of the National Holiday. We had a map and walked around looking at all the sights. We ran into Bunny Man (see above picture - left side) who was a man dressed in a bunny suit walking around with his buddies in celebration of his Bachelor party. We did our best to avoid Bunny Man. Luxembourg has an old Roman history and you can view some of the old ruins throughout the city. The main Roman historical area is called the Casemates. After walking around for a while we headed over to the Grand Duchy Palace. There was a big reception going on and dignitaries from all over were there. We stood outside and watched the guards do their systematic patrol. Then all of a sudden another bachelor party was on the outskirts but this time it was Chicken Man (see above picture - right side). You could see the guards were checking him out but it was all in good fun. We then walked around looking for a place for dinner. It started to drizzle so we found a place to eat inside (Cafe Francais or Cafe Paris; can't remember). I had a fish soup appetizer and a shrimp scampi for the main entree along with a couple of different Luxembourg beers (beers were nothing special). The waiter apologized for the service since it was so crazy with the Holiday that he gave us a free coffee. After dinner we walked to the other big square where a concert was going on. They had a large stage setup and they were playing jazz music and Patti Austin came out and sang. People were hanging out drinking mostly beers. We stayed for a while and then went back to the room.