Yesterday we walked into town, the tyres need to be pumped up on our bikes before we can ride them 🙁 so we had to use our legs again. But that was good as it worked off the croissants with jam and brie we had for breakfast – to die for – fresh as. First stop was the local museum dedicated to the 101 Airborne Squadron who defended Bastogne against the Germans in the Battle of the Bulge, and stopped the Nazis counter attacking the allies push towards Berlin. What an awesome museum, lots of memorabilia, great scenes with authentic mannequins dressed as the time and very graphic. They had a bomb shelter setup where you sat in darkness and they simulated a bombing raid all around you, with all the noises you would have expected to hear. I had to put my fingers in my ears as the noise was horrific and frightening, you could be forgiven for thinking it was real. What all those who have experienced this type of hell during any of the cities raids during world war two doesn’t bear thinking about.
Afterwards we bought some fresh baguettes and made our lunch sitting on a bench in the middle of town. We had taken our brie, tomato, ham and avocado to put in it and then sat and ate them (saves money so we can spend it on beer).
We walked the town doing a bit of shopping and I made a fool of myself trying to print a couple of photos out on a machine where I ignored the sign that (in French) said I had to wait 3 days for the photos and then had to try to explain to them that they needed to try and cancel it because I wanted them immediately….oh duh! All good in the end though.
Off this morning to Luxembourg. Its funny how you get to different parts of countries and in some parts the roads are faultless and amazing and the equivalent status of road in another part is full of pot holes and just dreadful to drive on. And we saw this in England as well as in Belgium. The highway this morning was in a dreadful state of disrepair – which I find so strange as most of the roads in Belgium are really well kept. On one part of the border where I felt one side of the road was probably in Luxembourg and the other in Belgium we passed a stretch of road not even 500m long where there were at least 12 fuel stations – probably more. I have never seen more than maybe two within a kilometre let alone that amount – how strange.
As we travelled over the border into Luxembourg there was a distinct difference in style – quite amazing. It was also strange as in Belgium it was busy, but in Luxembourg the streets were quiet. It took us a while to realise that no one was open and it looked like baguettes were off for the days lunch. Then suddenly we spotted a whole lot of people parking and going into this place, where it looked like a mini fete with food, so we decided it was a good idea to go and check it out. We pulled into the carpark and then I realised that maybe it was a school function. A lady walked past and we asked her what it was. It was a local scout fund raising luncheon and she said to come join them. We looked so conspicuous and out of place, but we toddled in anyway, paid for some food, a beer and a bubbly and ate them. I am sure people were wondering what we were doing there especially since our campervan stuck out in the carpark and we did with our language difference. But hey we were contributing to the local economy. One guy told us it was a Catholic public holiday for the second death of Christ.
We took off and found our camping ground just on the outskirts of Luxembourg City where we were directed to another local sporting fete type event near the camping ground by some other campers. We enjoyed another beer, bubbly and frites whilst having a look around. It looked like an event to get kids interested in Olympic style sports. One thing we have really noticed in our travels are two major differences from Australia is that the majority of the populations here do not have weight problems and no one is constantly on their phone. It is difficult to spot a phone even in a huge crowd.
Early to rise in the morning as we are off into Luxembourg city to have a look around for the day. Unfortunately it is too far to bike and with major highways in between us and the city biking isn’t really appropriate, so it will be the bus.
