Whooo Wee, A Drive Into Luxembourg

We woke up pretty excited this morning, eager to begin our travel to Luxembourg as none of us have ever visited there.  I want to go everywhere I can and see it all!!

On our way out of Belgium, we stopped at Orval abbey, where the monks still live and study.  To pay their expenses  they have a thriving brewery and cheese production.  Both are well know and in demand throughout Europe.  The ancient abbey was bombed during the second world war, so a new abbey was built after the war and is still in use.  We were able to walk through the ruins which were still beautiful.

Exit Belgium with a heavy heart.  We loved the country side and the people.  They couldn't have been more kind and welcoming.  Luxembourg was a different place entirely.  Of course very small and we were seeing hills for the first time since leaving England.  Very green and pretty.

This 3-D ad for French Fries was at the bottom of the hill of our hotel.  We climbed the hill only to find that the hotel was closed.  We had another suggestion, so we left with Brenda plugged in to find our lodging for the night.  We have also discovered that Luxembourg is a motorcycle haven!  Very few cars, and even fewer with 23 women traveling!!

 Stone bridge over the river running through Luxembourg.

There are so few American tourists in Belgium and Luxembourg, they do not have Visa machines for the credit cards.  We can only use our debit cards to withdraw Euros to use.  Ugh.

Sue was really tired and not hungry for dinner tonight so Suze and I went down to check things out without her.  This happens to each of us at least once during the week.  Anyway, Suze and I were trying to translate the menu for the night.  We looked at each other and asked "Isn't cheval horse?"  Five minutes later we discovered that we had guessed right, the main entree was horse.  Oh man, we couldn't do that!  We both did soup without meat.  How do you pick a horse to eat?  How do you know if it's a good horse?  I have so many questions about the whole horse thing.

We had lovely rooms and great beds!  Something we treasure every time we find them.  And this room was huge too.  Yippee!!

In the morning when we left, we found this incredible little community of holiday cottages.  They were so cute!!  Teeny, tiny little yards, tiny little gardens and all had the little grandma (OK, I'm a grandma) figures of elves, gnomes, squirrels, deer, hegdehogs and bunnies.  A veritable fairyland for young kids... and grandmas.

Luxembourg still had the architecture very similar to Belgium with the tall stair-step fronts, turrets and tall windows.  

Can you believe MacDonalds with a McDrive through!  I believe we have only seen 3 of these since landing at Heathrow.  They all have had trustworthy bathrooms which often come in handy.

                                                               On to Switzerland!!