Day 15

We finished Benelux today. But that means Germany tomorrow! We woke up at 6 am and stopped in the cafeteria for breakfast. After taking some extra bread and meat for lunch, we left for the train station. We had our first encounter with the bus system today, and we soon realized that it was going to be more difficult than we had anticipated. They don't announce stops, nor do they stop at every stop, so you just have to guess. Luckily, I was able to communicate with the drivers well enough to get us to the right stops. Our first destination was Esch-sur-Sure. It was beautiful in the morning and we decided to go on a hike in search of our picture spot. What I though would be an easy hike turned out to be an intense uphill battle. For almost an hour we climbed in the muddy, slippery, poison oak filled terrain. My legs were burning and I was out of breath. We made it to the top and started our search for the view of the city. But we never found it. Instead, we found cows. We spent some time with the cows and then started our descent. While walking, I was surprised by a stick that I tripped over. It looked like a human spine. And after closer examination, we found that it was a spine! And there were plenty of other bones on the ground surrounding it. I'm not sure if it was an animal's or a small human's, but it was definitely a spine. I started walking much faster. We did stop at a nice picture spot and got some great shots of the city. So I guess not all was lost. We finished our descent and took a mini break before starting our next task. We saw the ruins of the city castle and had to climb up to see it. The hike was definitely not as bad as the first and the view was spectacular. We spent some time up at the top and saw another climbing opportunity in the distance. As soon as we got back down, we started climbing again. However, this time, we had a guide. And his name was Mr. Cat. This little guy found us at the start of the stairs and led us up the entire way. When we would stop to take pictures, he would grow impatient and meow at us. And if we were still taking too long, he would come back down and wait until we were ready. Don't worry, we got a video of it. After making it to the top, we climbed up a defense tower, without our trusty guide, and saw an even better view of the city. I would say that this hike was worth it. Now the next stop was Bourschied. After getting in to the city we started looking for the castle that we thought we would have to climb to. Unfortunately, our walk started going downhill. This was nice for my legs, but I knew in order to get back into the city, it would be an uphill climb. The castle was nice, but in ruins. We climbed in and out of the tunnels and up to the top. The panoramic view was gorgeous. We could even see the nice long uphill walk all the way to Bourschied that we would have to make soon. We relaxed a little in the castle, but my legs were still plenty sore when we started our hike. We found a shortcut along the way which saved us time, but the path was much steeper. After crawling to the top we were on our way to Vianden. This city also had a castle, but luckily for my legs, it also had a chairlift to take you to the top. We gladly hopped on that and rode over the city. After getting to the top we had to walk for a bit to get to the castle, but at least it was down hill. The castle was in much better shape than the other two and we were able to go into many of its rooms. We even saw the well that they used to use to get fresh water from the river. This was by far the nicest castle I've ever been in, but I don't really have anything else to compare it with. We shall see as the trip progresses. After our visit to the castle I was feeling pretty good because I knew that meant the day was almost over and I could relax. We took our bus back to the train station and the train back to Luxembourg. And by now, we were very very hungry. A ham sandwich just doesn't seem to fill me up anymore. We searched the city for some decently priced food or an open grocery store. It had neither of those. The choice was between Subway and McDonald's. I think you know where we ended up going. I splurged a little and got one of the fancy burgers with bacon and onions because my legs had been through a lot today. They needed it. We polished those off and are now back at the hostel for the evening. Germany is tomorrow. I can hardly wait!