This time of year always drags me down, darkening nights, worsening weather, and the obsession with Christmas (I hate Christmas, but won't dwell on that since it is a lovely time for most people). Anyhow, it is my wife's 50th birthday just after Christmas, and I asked her for ideas, since choosing presents is possibly my worst attribute. She said that she would like a few days abroad, a bit later in the year when the weather is better ...
So I got a local brochure for coach trips (we both enjoy the luxurious relaxation of coach travel) and today my wife confirmed we are booked on a 5 day break at Easter to Vianden in Luxembourg (the choice was hers, I merely offered suggestions). I gather this is a hidden jewel in Europe, it will certainly be a treat ! Plenty of time to research what to see etc, although trips are built into the holiday.
sad to hear you're not keen on christmas, but what a treat to look forward to
I don't like cold, dark wet times, whether summer or winter, anyway, enjoy the anticipation as well as the holiday :D
My brother lived in Luxembourg for a couple of years. It is a fabulous area - apart from Luxembourg City itself which has lots of interesting places to visit - there is the area known as la petite suisse luxembourgeoise and some interesting trips to Belgium including a coal mine that went under the Maginot line from Luxembourg - this is a bit hazy since they lived there about 20 years ago!! - and the castle of Du Bouillon with all its implements of torture. \good food and friendly people who speak French, German and letzebuerger - but will readily drop into English if you hesitate for a moment or two!
Hey also if you need cheering up have some hugs! :-*
Oooo lovely to have something to look forward to in the New Year.
Curry, your trip sounds lovely, Luxembourg is reputed to be very scenic with fairy tale castles and beautiful gardens. Something to look forward to. Just don't think about what we have to go through before then, I'm trying not to! ;)
:) hugs from me also Curry,Xmas is a hard time for lots of folk,bad things happen to us at Xmas as well as the rest of the year :'( keep your chin up and look forward to that hol in Easter and before you know it, it will be summer again/shades :-*
christmas last year was rough for us, here's hoping you can find something nice about it, and hugs from us both :D
Thanks for all the support and comments, chaps and chapesses ... I am fairly open minded about what we will see, but included in the break, are trips to Luxembourg City, and Echterbach (sp?) and a tour of Vianden Castle. Google is working overtime to give me snippets of info, and I have a particular delight in sampling foods, not to mention the beers and wines ... :D
I have a smattering of french, and a touch less of german, so hopefully I will not find the language too arduous, although it seems a meld of those, plus dutch and flemish? I must try and learn how to say thank you in the local lingo (Letzebuergisch?), hopefully that will bridge any gaps ...
http://www.byki.com/
this was put on another thread, by Kenkew, it's a pretty good site for languages, may help with your quest :)
Oh there are wonderful Belgian/Flemish/Dutch trappist beers. I'd forgotten.
How can you forget wonderful beers? :-\ I can still remember the exquisite Diebels we drank when staying in Germany, both the pils and the dunkelbier. Best beers I have ever tasted, in my opinion.
Depends how many you had Curry!!!
::)
Hmmm that is a point I suppose, but in that case, I never forget the hangover !
Warsteiner is the beer for me.
Nicknamed "wobbley" by the RAF lads. ;D
I'm fond of obscure Continental beers... found a smoked wheat beer last weekend, had to try it... not as good as either a proper rauchbier or weisbeer sadly!
;D
Sounds like a real treat. Hope you get a few bright sunny days and pass a few hours in some wonderful cafes and bars. :PEnjoy all the research, when you get back do let us know about your discoveries...
In the meantime, I have found myself a new short term hobby, choosing wines for Christmas dinner ... I have already tried a reduced price Cava which will do for beforehand - struggling to choose a main wine, my first selection sampled last night was woefully poor - Rioja Marques de Grinon Reserva 2002, listed at £9.99. Still, I have several other bottles to try ... :D
My wife has already selected a 50cl bottle of Eiswine for the pudding, and there is LBV port available if needed.
Quotewe both enjoy the luxurious relaxation of coach travel
Hell on earth if you ask me :o
Christmas dinner wine? Pomerol & chateau neuf for the oldies, SA rosé for the youngsters
No wine here; the rest of the family are all militantly anti. I can just about get away with the occasional bottle, but that's as far as it goes.
Quote from: Merry Tiller on December 03, 2006, 02:32:38
Quotewe both enjoy the luxurious relaxation of coach travel
Hell on earth if you ask me :o
Memories of charabancs for me ;D
Don't worry about the language, btw.....English will get you anywhere ;D
Whatever makes you feel better, is good, really.
I try to make the best of what I can whatever the season.
Not keen on coaches myself, but can see the attraction of not having to sit in traffic jams.
Don't drink a lot of wine here, but will probably have something with dinner at Christmas, just for the tradition of it.
It appears that many people have bad memories of coach travel, myself included as I was always very sick on vehicles as a child. However, modern coach travel is blissful in comparison, comfort levels are very high, and the tour operator I am travelling with are very professional, with comfort stops every 2-3 hours or so, videos when abroad etc. Personally, I enjoy the relaxation of not having to negociate traffic on unfamiliar roads, or the bustle and discomfort associated with air travel.
Just my point of view, but since it concurs with that of my wife, then we are both happy ... :D
I got the bus from Newcastle,changed at Kingscross and went through to Athens harbour. Then a few months later I got it back again. ;D
Sounds like a good trip !
Heldi. What happened did you lose your way???
It was when I was in my early twenties. My friend Sam and I were sitting in her kitchen one night when we came up with this idea of catching the bus to Greece and then going island hopping. So about a fortnight later, there we were,with each of us only having about 200 quid, off on an adventure.
Quick short version.
The bus itself was fine and comfy particularly as we managed to get the back seats to ourselves when we nabbed the bus for the long haul across Europe. It was fantastic. Saw all the sights. Belgium,we went right through the middle of Brussels. Germany,stopped for a pee in Frankfurt where I first saw a loo with a little shelf...you know what I mean ;). Unfortunately I lost my toggle off my jacket down that loo and no way was I fishing it out.
Wandering through the hills can you imagine what it was like to suddenly come across Neuschwanstein Castle ??!!!! NEVER ever wil forget that first site and wished I could have stopped.Austria by night...all the twinkling lights in the hillsides. Yugoslavia. All the people dressed in black in the fields. The guy in the garage who would eagerly take any currency I had for a bottle of coke even though it was very little money to me. Stopped at a place in the countryside for a pee and a drink. It was full of military :o.
Greece. Dry, dusty,hot. First time I came across a hole in the ground loo. Yuk! (I remember loos on my trips lol!) Something happened in Thesalonika but I can't remember what...just remember nearly missing the bus after getting off for a stretch.
Athens. 2 am, 3 or 4 days later. Thousands of cochroaches on the street. I'm pretty ok with alot of bugs but have you seen the size of those things over there :o!!
Quote from: Heldi on December 05, 2006, 10:37:30
(I remember loos on my trips lol!)
I remember loos too ! The most disgusting for me was an open air one in Rome, a few yards from the Spanish Steps would you believe ... I felt like disinfecting my shoes when I had used it !!! At the other end of the coin, I have used one of those 'automatic' toilets in France, a bit like a Tardis sort of thing, when you leave it goes through a wash and spin cycle ...
Keep us updated with more of the Greek adventures ...
Hey, this thread is doing the trick - I am definitely feeling more cheerful ... (thanks to all contributions) ... :D
We got on the boat to Rhodes and got off on the wrong island! That was the first of many daft things we did. But that might be another story.
On the trip back home. We got off the ferry from Santorini ..I think..back in Athens a few months later. Couldn't remember where the bus was. We ran about Athens like mad things looking for it. I never did see the Acropolis...can you believe that! ::) To busy looking for the blinking bus station. We got on the bus at a squeeze.It was jam packed on the way back. No stretching out on the back seats this time. Off we went back through Greece. Driver was a lunatic. Saw countless car crashes but it was really late and I fell asleep. Woke up in the middle of the night. Yugoslavian border. Surrounded by military,bus had been searched and I'd slept through it LOL! A South African couple from the bus were freaking out. Apparently we'd been there for 4 hours and they weren't going to let us through.
Have you realised why...think about the Yugoslavian bloke on the way to Athens who was desperate for any currency...the military presence...yep it was when all hell kicked off in Yugoslavia. Sam and I hadn't looked at a newspaper in weeks so we knew nothing.
We were eventually let through the border, after a good while. The Greek driver doing his nut! (In front of blokes with guns!!!) We travelled a different route. At one stop, the locals wouldn't let us use their loos unless we paid them money...lots of money. Me and Sam managed to sneak in but had to pelt back to the bus as an angry...no not mob...old granny, was after us. She had hate in her eyes I tell you! Blimey when you gotta go you gotta go Missus. I do remember that we on the bus were feeling very apprehensive all the way through Yugoslavia. The way we came back showed us a different part of that country. Long grey tower blocks and depressing looking housing. Bleak,dirty and ugly. Completely different from the scenery on the way there. I now realised those people in the fields were poor. Extremely poor.
All was pretty quiet from then on. Austria lovely. Missed the castle on the way home. It must've been at night and I must've been asleep :( Better than being awake as the driver was a lunatic. Also the South African couple moaned all the way...saying how great where they lived was...swimming pool etc and how drab London will be.
Re visited the Frankfurt loo ...for old times sake.
Drove into Brussels. Down a street. "Hey look at those ladies in those windows!" Bus listed violently to one side as all the blokes down the right hand side of the bus dived over to take a looky at the scantily clad women.
Stopped for a break in Brussels. Sam and I were skint and hadn't eaten for a couple of days. We sat and watched a man in a restaurant devouring spaghetti ,stomachs rumbling...it was torture.
Back to London. Couldn't afford whole of bus fare back to Newcastle...we'd come so far and yet.... good old ticket bloke gave us the tickets woo hoo!
Back to Newcastle...back into my little flat,backpack dumped...then out onto the town .Sorted.