Luxembourg for tourists

We have just enjoyed nearly a week in Luxembourg with Caitlin and Riona (and Mark for half of it).  We drove over on Saturday 31 May, and Caitlin and Riona arrived by train on the Sunday.  The London to Brussels section took them less time than the 4:15 hours from Brussels to Arlon (Belgium) where we picked them up.  

Monday 02 June 2025

First up on the grand tour of Luxembourg was Vianden.  

We didn't feel the need to go inside it, but enjoyed the views and, particularly, the chair lift.

Coffee with a view was lovely, and then we had a pleasant walk around Vianden village jumping onto various entertainments as they were found.

We also visited Germany for 5 minutes, and discovered the Luxembourg border post which made a Ruth very happy.

Tuesday 03 June 2025

We did wedding running around today, ordering the helium balloons, flowers and buying bits and bobs for the reception.  

After lunch we had a treat of high ropes at Parc Le'h Adventures.  JC, Caitlin, Riona and I did the first circuit which took an hour or so.  

JC then decided to stay on terra firma whilst we three took to the high ropes again.

This course was trickier than the first - we got stuck at one stage with both Riona and I needing a hand to reach the netting from where we were dangling (Caitlin had opted for the less faff zip-wire option).  Lots of hanging off arms and upper body strength which was a fine work out, but pretty unexciting for JC who was left contemplating life and all that (book and phone had been left behind) whilst we took 2 hours to complete it.  

We were late back, had to cook in a rush and only just made it to Luxembourg airport for 2115 to pick up Mark who had just flown in from London.  Welcome Mark!

Wednesday 04 June 2025

We had a pleasant 6.3 km stroll in the Mullerthal today, starting just south of Nommern.  This walk, in the 'Petite Suisse' of Luxembourg, traversed some interesting rock formations.

We were joined by JC's sister (Marie-Anne) and brother-in-law who were also around.   They had already booked their flights from New Zealand to visit M-A's parents in back in December when we announced our wedding plans, so it was a happy coincidence we were all together. 

M-A and John headed back whilst we drove to Larochette for picnic lunch.

We then went south east to Remish which sits on the River Mossel, the border with Germany.  We considered popping over to both Germany and France but focused our tourist efforts on crazy golf, which JC annoyingly (not for him) won.

Thursday 04 June 2025

JC was busy with home commitments today so Caitlin, Riona, Mark and I headed into Luxembourg City.  All public transport in Luxembourg is free so we took a train and tram into the city centre.  

We found the lift that descended into the Alzette Valley where Caitlin played us a tune, then walked across to the funicular.  

We meandered along the Alzette and past the Bock.  

A bit of a whistle stop tour for the girls (and Mark).  Luxembourg highlights the Ruth/Caitlin/Riona way which involved seeing a castle, a chair lift, high ropes, Mullerthal, Mossel, crazy golf, city strolling, train, tram, lift and a furnicular.  All the best bits!

In between these we were capably hosted by JC's parents who were delighted to have 'normal' guests who devoured pastries and cake.  :-)

Grand Western Canal

JC and I walked the Grand Western Canal over 3 days recently.  We selected it as my sciatica is bad and I wanted somewhere flat and unchallenging to walk.  You can't get much flatter than a canal (unless you march up and down a runway).  We randomly started in the middle and walked west.  If I'd known we were going to complete the whole thing I would, have course, been more organised and walked from one end to the other.  However, it's probably only me that this bothers.

1. The first time we walked from Halberton to Tiverton Canal (and back of course) - 14.9 km.

2. The second time we started from the most easterly point, Lowdwells Lock, and walked west, pivoting back at Sampford Peverell - 16.8 km.

3. And the third time we walked from Sampford Peverell to Halverton and back - 7.1 km.

The Grand Western Canal was opened in 1814 between Tiverton and the limestone quarries at Westleigh (near Lowdwells Lock).  The ambition was to create a cross Devon/Somerset canal - from the Exe to the Severn Estuary.  Although they gave up on this idea, in 1838 it was extended to Taunton.  As we all know, the advent of the railways quashed the profitability of the canal trade and in 1925 the canal was left unused due to persistent leaks and lack of traffic.

The canal was earmarked for in-filling in the 1970s when the successful 'save the canal' campaign enabled Devon County Council to take on ownership.  The most feasible statutory tool it had was to designate it as a Country Park, so now we have the Grand Western Canal Country Park.

We enjoyed our walk, which had lots of pretty views/bridges.

This is the most easterly end where the canal stops.

The only canal traffic we saw were kayakers.  As this is a 'closed' canal, with no water entry/exit,  the only canal boats will have been craned in and stay going up and down, until they are lifted off.

I think this marker was how many miles to Tiverton basin.

And these are the lime kilns, near the eastern end.

All in, a lovely few days walking there and back on a flat terrain with views, bridges, ducks, geese and moorhens to amuse me.

Shute Barton and Bella the cow

On an April Saturday recently, I visited the National Trust property Shute Barton.  It's only open for visitors a few times a year so I joined a tour to explore this site.  It dates back to 1380 when it was originally built as a single dining hall with a massive fire place - apparently, the largest medieval fireplace in the UK.  It probably never had just one fire, but hosted a few smaller ones.  

It was an interesting tour hearing about all the modifications over the centuries.  At one stage it was one of the largest unfortified manor houses in England - but it was part dismantled in the 18th century to build the new Shute house.  

The gatehouse was designed by Sir William Pole in 1587.  The side arms were added by the Victorians quite a bit later.

Was most interested to see this tapestry, relocated from Antony House, which the Carew Pole family also owned (left image).  It's very similar to the one JC has in his dining room which his Mum sewed (right) - same lady, a unicorn, a lion same trees, same flags etc.

After the tour I popped into Shute church for a cup of tea.  Also bagged the benchmark ;-)

As Axminster was just around the corner, I decided to explore.  Turns out it wasn't as big as I thought, but it had a great coffee shop, interesting buildings and, of course, the Minster of Ax.  I think the benchmark in the stonework has eroded and all you can now see is the nail.

I wandered down to see the River Axe which wasn't as eye catching as the interesting old building next to it.  And somewhen during my explorations I found a concrete cow and herder which Google informs me are Bella and Farmer Fred.

 

Giant's Basin and the River Plym

We popped out to Dartmoor yesterday as JC wanted to photograph a waterfall on Shavercombe Brook and see Deadman's Bottom on Langcombe Brook.  We parked up at the Ditsworthy car park, noting quite a few school minibuses - it's Ten Tors training season - and walked down to the Warren House bumping into a teacher from Kingsbridge who was setting up his tent in advance of his school kids joining later.

To get to the waterfall we had to cross the Plym, which turned out to be a lot harder than we'd expected.  Perhaps the river was higher than usual but we weren't confident in getting across it safely so we stayed on the north side.  (Those stones are further apart than they look!).

We walked east to the Plym Steps but realised that we didn't really have time to cross over and find the Deadman's Bottom, so circled back around Higher Hartor Tor and had a photo session around the standing stones of Giant's Basin.

As the sun set the temperature dropped by about 10 degrees.  I started doing laps of the stones to keep warm, and, as the sky turned red, we headed back to the car.

En route, we encountered a Ten Tors tent village (the car park suggested Exmouth Community College were also there) and the kids were enjoying their dry, light-wind campsite.  I was on planet-spot watch again and, as I have done most nights this week already, easily found Venus (just to the north/east of the beautiful crescent moon) and Jupiter and Mars further across the sky.