Luxembourg and Belgium

Instead of traveling great distances this weekend, we decided to stay close to home and take a few day trips. We only have two weeks left in Maastricht before we take off for a month of travel, and we needed a little bit of a break from night trains and hostels.

On Friday we went to Luxembourg to do a bit of castle hunting. Luxembourg is one of the smallest countries in the world but boasts the second highest GDP! It is also the only remaining sovereign "Grand Duchy," ruled by a Grand Duke. The souvenir shops even sell postcards with a portrait of the royal family, which I thought was pretty hilarious. In one of them, the family is wearing jeans and white shirts, posed on a hillside. I guess when you have half-a-million people in your country, a post card is more or less your Christmas card photo.

It took us three and a half hours to get there by train and then from Luxembourg City we took a train to Diekirch and a bus to Vianden. The journey to Vianden was so beautiful! Both the train and the bus took us through the countryside, and the 6 of us were snapping pictures left and right. Everything was so green and lush, and we were surrounded by hills. We arrived in Vianden, and when we got off the bus we looked up a cliff to see the Vianden Castle! The castle was constructed from the 11th of the 14th century and was restored to its former glory in the 1970s when the Grand Duke transferred the castle to state's ownership. We've seen many palaces in our travels, but not one right out of a fairy tale like this one!

I was absolutely in heaven! The town was so quaint and rustic, and I had so much fun playing with my new camera. The streets were all cobblestone and each building was a different color with a different door. I have a new found fascination with the doors in Europe - they make American doors look so boring.

Once we finally reached the castle, we had the entire place to ourselves. Wandering through the rooms and climbing from level to level, it was fun to pretend we lived there. Every little girl dreams of being a princess, and we certainly had our fun exploring!

We went back to Luxembourg City that afternoon and walked across the Viaduc Bridge to see Notre Dame Cathedral (not as impressive as the one in Paris) and the Royal Duke's Palace. Lexi claims she's going to marry the next Duke, which would be nice because I'd always have a place to stay in Luxembourg! But no joke, the palace was beautiful, just like the rest of the country!

We grabbed some dinner at the cheapest place we could find (besides McDonald's), and had pizza and pasta for 10 euros. The sun was starting to set, and we walked back to the train station enjoying the scenery.

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We woke up on Saturday and caught a train to Bruges, Belgium. Colin Farrell said in his latest movie In Bruges, "if i grew up on a farm and was retarded, Bruges might impress me but I didn't so it doesn't." Well Mr. Farrell, I beg to differ.

The day was so enjoyable and I loved Bruges! We arrived just before noon and ate a quick lunch at the train station before exploring the city. The town was picture perfect... cobblestone streets with horse-drawn carriages going by and chocolate shops every few feet. With Spring starting, tulips, pansies, and daffodils were beginning to bloom, and there were swans swimming and boats cruising through the city's canals.

After taking pictures in a beautiful park, we stopped at a bakery to get authentic Belgian waffles. Oh goodness, the waffles in Maastricht don't even compare to those in Belgium! I had one with whipped cream and strawberry sauce, and could have easily eaten two more!

Next, we went to the Church of Our Lady, where we saw the statue "Madonna and Child" by Michaelangelo. It is his only piece of work outside of Italy, and was brought to Bruges in 1516 by the merchant Jan Van Moeskroen. The church was beautiful and it was really neat to see something created by someone as well-known as Michaelangelo.

From the church we continued through the city, stopping in several chocolate shops along the way. I got 2 pieces of chocolate for 0,75 euros - a praline and a whipped cream filled one... sorry America, but Hershey's will NEVER taste the same.

We found our way to the Market Square where we saw the Provincial Courthouse and the Clock Tower, and then we went to Old Burg Square to the Church of the Holy Blood. Before venturing inside I imagined a piece of cloth with blood droplets on it, but in reality it was a red crystalized substance in a tiny glass tube. People would climb up to the relic to lay hands on the encased tube and some even kissed it before crossing themselves. One of the Gospels mentions that Joseph of Arimathea preserved Jesus' blood when cleaning his body, but I guess I kept thinking, "okay, but why Bruges?" The story says that Count Diederik van den Elzas brough the blood to Bruges from Jerusalem after the second crusade. Others say that it didn't arrive in Bruges until later and that it came from Constantinople. I thought it was very interesting, whether or not it really is true.

From there we found our way back to the chocolate shop (where I purchased even more chocolate) and then to a restaurant where we sampled some of their fries. Though in the States we call them French fries, fries actually find their origin in Belgium. The French recognize this as well! For people to have called them "Freedom fries" after anti-French sentiments a few years ago seems even more foolish now. They weren't as amazing as I thought they'd be, but it's fun to say we've tried them in their birthplace.

It was a wonderful, relaxing weekend and now I'm having a lazy day to catch up on laundry, schoolwork, and studying for finals. Missing you all!