(Vianden, Luxembourg and Luxembourg City, Luxembourg)

After returning from my hike through the borderlands on August 10, I spent the remainder of the day exploring the “urban” sights of Vianden.  It doesn’t take long – it’s not much more than a village and the main sight is obviously the castle.  There are lots of hilltop castles around here but this is definitely one of the largest.  After a tough uphill slog (or “sog”, as it poured ferociously), I spent about an hour wandering through the castle.  Parts of it date back to Roman times but it has been rebuilt often over the centuries.

The town itself is very quaint and clearly owes its prosperity to tourism.  Vianden was apparently a favourite of the writer Victor Hugo; there is a Hugo museum here and I am staying in the Hotel Victor Hugo.   Given the castle’s association with the royal family of Luxembourg (which is closely related to the Dutch royal family), the town is understandably very popular with visitors from the Netherlands.

I spent two nights in Vianden and then returned to Luxembourg City for a night as my flight from Luxembourg City to Amsterdam left early in the morning on August 12.   It is the only sizable city in Luxembourg and is quite diverse due to the many financial institutions and international organizations that are based here.  It reminds me a lot of Quebec City, being a walled city on a hill, but with a more youthful and transient population (many of whom looked somewhat uncomfortable in their suits).

After finding a shoemaker who was willing to repair my backpack (well worth the price, just to see how he worked with his hands and improvised a solution), I did a bit of shopping and visited the free postal and bank museums.  I enjoyed the postal museum more; it helped that there was an audio guide in English.  I can get by here with pidgin German, but it is a little more tiring than using my native language.

The dining options in Luxembourg City are much more interesting than in Vianden.  I chose the “Restaurant Tibet” and it was probably the best meal of the trip so far.

I was brought a complimentary pappadum with 4 dipping sauces.  I don’t know what they were really called, but I’m going to call them sweet and sour, hot chili, spicy pickled onion, and mint/cucumber yogurt.  They were all delicious and I combined some of them for increased effect.

My appetizer was Bhutanese Cheese Soup.  I have never eaten anything from Bhutan but it was excellent:  very cheesy, with a variety of vegetables and a nice tinge of hotness.

For the main course, I gladly went with the standard Tibetan dish:  Momo dumplings filled with either chicken or vegetables.  The sauce was great:  I don’t know the name but it was chili-based with a very smoky flavour.  Everything about this dish was delicious, even the presentation was very appealing.

My beverage was Tibetan tea with salt and yak butter.  I’ve had this before and it can become somewhat difficult to drink if there is too much salt and butter.  This one had just the right amounts.

I’ve had some bland Tibetan food in Canada so the spicy flavours of this meal were a pleasant surprise.   I am now really looking forward to the exotic flavours of Indonesian cuisine – one of my favourite parts about eating out in the Netherlands.  Actually, I already had some Dutch food in Vianden:  for a snack, I had a “Goulashkroket” from the snack bar near my hotel.  The owner was Dutch, the menu was in Dutch and every single customer was Dutch!

I’ve enjoyed my solo trip to this corner of Europe, but I am really looking forward to meeting my wife in Amsterdam and (re-)discovering the Netherlands together.