Trier (Germany) – Diekirch (Luxembourg)

Today's Route

We followed our now tried and tested sightseeing routine – we got up, moved the van to some free parking (although it turned out we didn't pay for last night in the end anyway), utilised the McDonald's facilities – but avoided any bacon & egg McMuffins (a close call), unhitched the bikes and cycled into Trier town centre.

We were – it has to be said – expecting great things from Trier. Apparently the oldest city in Germany it was a big roman town (Capital of the Western Roman Empire no less) and is supposed to be pretty cool. Well, it was nice – but it wasn't all that :) It's that city snobbery thing again – too many lovely places have been visited, and it's impossible not to judge them all against each other in some way.

All the same, it was a nice place and we enjoyed a coffee & croissant breakfast, a stroll around, a trip into the Porta Nigra (a big Roman church/gate type affair), and then – resisting all further pastries and cakes – we bought some bread and went back to the van for a modest sandwich lunch. How virtuous we are.

Then it was time for a change of country – today we were mostly visiting Luxembourg – a totally unknown quantity.

We got over the (not very noticeable) border from Germany and stopped in a petrol station so that Jon could check the tyre pressures and I could get me an 'L' sticker for the table. We didn't realise until we drove off that the petrol station we had stopped in was the first of about 12 – all along that first stretch of road over the border. It was pretty obvious that the main reason was the price of petrol, some 30cents/litre cheaper than just over the border! Never really seen anything like that before though – very interesting.

You kind of think that all these places with virtually non-existent borders (in terms of no passport checks and, in many cases, no sign of there ever having been any) and histories of constant upheaval and changes in ownership would all be ver similar – so that you would hardly know that you had changed country at all. It just isn't the case.

Luxembourg is distinctly different from Germany – it would be difficult to say why – but it is. Trust me.

Anyway. We drove through a bit of Luxembourg the country to get to the capital city – Luxembourg City.

An interesting approach where the roads were very straight and tree lined, the buildings were all new and shiny – looked lovely. The city centre was quite different – very dramatic with 2 big wooded valleys running through it, and buildings perched on top of the hills on the sides. Very nice. We parked the van (eventually) and had a stroll about – leered at the amazing cakes in the amazing cake shop (but didn't buy any), enjoyed the scenery, took some photos, didn't go on the mini-train (€12 each!), etc.

Not amazing, but pleasant, not as boring as some might think, but maybe not as interesting as you might hope – if you see what I mean (at all?). We waited until we were back at the van for refreshments – a cup of tea and half a scheeball each – did the job a treat.

That done we were off to find a campsite – heading north through Luxembourg to Diekirch – famous for it's beer (served everywhere), via Aldi where Jon was despatched to buy dinner – coming back with pizza (requiring cooking) and tinned pineapple. Interesting. Still, this was going to be a chance to try our double skillet as an 'oven' – something that was one of it's selling points when I got it.

Anyhow, we reached Diekirch, found the campsite – and parked up in the slightly cheaper (€5) camping car spots which are actually outside the gates of the campsite itself, but have full facilities and are quite pleasant.

Had a great shower – much needed after what has felt like a hard day of touristing!

The pizza was a success – cooked in batches it was just like it had been cooked in the oven – better maybe because the base was extra crispy. Served with a load of salad, an almost virtuous meal.

At about 10pm I got a bit bored with reading my book and waiting for Jon to finish programming (working on holiday – dedicated?), especially as he had claimed he was only going to do it for 15 minutes – nearly 2 hours ago! So, after dragging him out of the laptop we went for a walk, finally locating downtown Diekirch and enjoying a small beer in the main square which was packed with other people enjoying Friday night fun. Lovely.