Another Pin

Another fun day is now in the books. Mom and I got up and downstairs to breakfast at 9:30 am. This was quite a feat since we spent the morning dancing around each other trying to get ready in our awesome but tiny castle room. When we descended our castle stairs we had a nice traditional German breakfast waiting for us in our window table. It included a ridiculous amount of bread, some cheese, cold-cuts and liverwurst. After breakfast I explored the castle a little more. It was bigger than I thought. There were four floors. Previously I had only been to the second floor because that’s where our room was located. It might have been cool to stay at the top but I think that the rooms got smaller as you went up. Additionally I would not have wanted to carry mom’s bag up any more than one flight of stairs. All of the decorations were very fitting. On the fourth floor there was a sword case that was probably my favorite decoration in the whole place.

When we were leaving St. Goar yesterday I spotted a hoop with a nice view of the Rhine. Unfortunately we were already on the ferry and had paid the toll. When I woke up this morning I decided I should have taken the picture. Mom was fine with stopping by it on the way to Luxembourg, since we had to cross the river with the car anyway, so we did. I quickly took the picture and we were off to get another country pin on my map.

I liked Luxembourg considerably more than Belgium. It seemed cleaner, the people were friendlier and it had many pretty green spaces. Mom and I started by exploring a bit of the downtown and poking our head in a few of the shops. We haven’t made any big purchases on this trip and that didn’t change today. Mom bought her dad one little thing and we bought a few food items. There was some type of carnival in one of the downtown squares with a bunch of food venders and kids games. One stand claimed to have “The World’s Best Waffles”. I wanted to congratulate them like Buddy the Elf on their success, but I figured they wouldn’t get it. Instead mom and I just bought a strawberry and cream waffle to share. It wasn’t cheap, it cost 5 Euros, but it was quite good. One thing we couldn’t figure out was the vendor’s mascot. It was a little boy, no joke, playing with himself. This vendor had two carts in separate locations and both had the same statue. The marketer in me can’t figure why one would pick that mascot, unless pedophiles are the target market for “the World’s Best Waffles.”

One of the main things I wanted to see in Luxembourg was General Patton’s resting place. I had read somewhere that it was located in Luxembourg but I couldn’t find an address in my guidebook. This meant that we had to find an Internet connection so I could look it up. I’m still shocked at how hard reasonably priced wireless internet has been to come by on this trip. It isn’t that hard to find but the prices are outrages. For instance, at a rest stop this morning they wanted 20 Euros for an hour’s worth of usage. I wasn’t willing to pay that. In retrospect I sort of wish I had. We eventually found the address but not until after we had played in the city. We didn’t make it to the cemetery until 5:15 pm and it had closed at 5 pm. I wanted to hop the wall but mom wouldn’t have it. (That’s another difference between traveling with mom and dad. He would have been all about me seeing it since I was there). You could tell, even just looking through the fenced off grounds, that it was a special place. More than 8,000 soldiers, some 5,500 from the US are buried in the Luxembourg American Cemetery and Memorial (near the site of the Battle of the Bulge). The grounds appear to be kept in immaculate condition, which is a fitting tribute to those of the Greatest Generation who sacrificed themselves so that others could live.

After “visiting” the cemetery we were off for Trier. Yet again we hit some serious traffic. It took us 45 minutes to go our last 4KM. We finally made it to our room around 7:30 pm. My first order of business was getting in touch with Udo because we are meeting up with him tomorrow. After getting our plans set mom and I went out to explore a little bit of Trier and to get some dinner.

One of the most famous landmarks in Trier is the Porta Nigra, or the Black Gate. The gate, built in the 2nd century is the oldest German defensive structure and the best preserved Roman city gate in the world, at least according to the Trier travel brochures. Our hotel is located directly across the street from the gate, so we decided to stroll over to see it before walking somewhere for dinner.

We are now back in the room and it is 10:40 pm. Our evening stroll allowed us to map out our plan for seeing Trier tomorrow. In the early afternoon we will drive along the Mosel to Cochem to meet up with Udo, Kathy, Hans and Finnie. I’m really looking forward to finally seeing the city I’ve heard so much about from Udo...

Katy