Luxembourg is a small country cradled between Germany, France and Belgium. It is known for its scenic roads, lush green meadows and its pure air. It also happens to be the country with the highest per capita income! A trip to Luxembourg is synchronous to a car drive, as people worldwide marvel at the scenic views the country can offer, and want to experience at least once, driving a car without the traffic factor, pollution or the time trap.
We rented a Peugeot 308 from the international car rental agency Hertz, known for its excellent services across the cities of Europe and for doling out brand new cars. Our car was just off the production line, 2 days old and loaded with features, with plenty of space for everything we needed. 2 of our friends' families joined us in their Audi A4 and VW Golf, we had planned a picnic lunch later that day.
Our guide for the day was a XL edition TomTom satnav system. As Indians used to having friendly 'டீ கட நாயரு's guiding us on our way in India, in the deserted(people wise) motorways of Europe, our TomTom was a necessity and to say the least, stopped us from ending up in Germany or France! We did a nice '150' all the way until Luxembourg, at which point we switched to the local roads. This road flowed with the land, going past villages nestled in low rising mountains, meadows dotted with grazing cattle, forests below on one side and rocky outcrops high above on the other. There are parts where one moment you would be gazing far out to the horizon and then the next, doing '150' down a hillside, whooping with joy! Due to the natural challenges offered by the roads, bikers are a common sight here, racing past you in large groups, commanding the road on Ducatis, Harley Davidsons and BMWs.
Set in the beautiful 'Our' valley, Vianden is known for its hilly streets and the impressive Vianden castle. After a short walk to the chairlift station, we were swinging high above the trees and houses in Luxembourg's only chairlift. The view from the top was breath taking, the city lay before us like an open book and the mountain riddled surface of Luxembourg stretched to the horizon. The magnificent castle lay to our right, with its tall turrets and grey walls, it stood as a pale contrast to the green wilderness around.
Our next stop was a butterfly park 40 miles south. We had a nice time there, having butterflies all over us, watching them emerge from their cocoons, fly all around the green house gathering nectar from many different kinds of flowers. There were more than 50 species of butterflies there along with different kinds of fish, tortoises and chameleons . Coming out, we decided to have our picnic right there! The food was really good and I ate my fill, I felt rewarded for my hard walking that day. With my stomach full, I felt even more vigorous to take on Luxembourg.
We then set off to Mullerthal, aptly named 'Little Switzerland'. It had many small rivers and waterfalls, the most famous perhaps being the Schiessentümpel waterfalls, almost in the middle of nowhere. The roads leading there were completely surrounded by trees, any village we stumbled upon, completely deserted, not a single soul on the streets, it was completely unlike any place I'd ever seen. Especially because every house had Audis, Mercedes, BMWs and Lexus easily crossing the 70000€ level.
There was a small river which flowed out from beneath us, off course from some unseen river. The rocky face of the hill and the river bordered the small path we took. The river was strewn with rocky debris and I guessed that this was not the place to be during a heavy rain. The river was frothing with sap(Yes! Tree sap!) because of the trees which lay uprooted by the riverside giving the whole area a sappy odour. This place amazingly silent, so accessible by the modern world but yet untouched, a million years old. The river split into three smaller streams and flowed down beneath a cute bridge. The rocky face was what caught my eyes the most, so bare, yet so amazingly beautiful.
I was practically dragged into the car, not at all wanting to leave, but Luxembourg city waited for us in all its glory and we were running out of daylight. We hit the road, our destination: 22 miles south east, we got there in 20 minutes. The city was scenic, seemingly trapped in time. We parked at an underground parking lot and headed to the surface. A fair was on just outside and we strolled through looking at the colourful toys, miniature figurines and candy. It turned a bit messy when the kids waged a war with a huge wad of candy, and in the end, as always, the candy won, ending up in their hair, faces and dresses. I had skilfully avoided it!
The Adolphe bridge, one of Luxembourg's main tourist attractions, was a picturesque location and with a fog below it was seemingly floating, as if right out of a fairy tale. Everything here seemed that way! We had a long walk through the streets of Luxembourg, but as it was late in the day, all the attractions were closed. After an hour or so we formed our game plan and started our return trip back to Eindhoven. We were to meet at Liege in Belgium later that night at an Indian hotel we located on our TomTom.
We entered Liege at around 11'o'clock and we didn't see a single person out on the streets, the city was sleeping. The Indian hotel we came to was there all right but it was closed. We found a small Turkish restaurant nearby which was still open, the owner nodding off at the counter. He saw us hesitating and he welcomed us right in, he said we would get anything we wanted. I was sleepy, clumsy and tired and my favourite Shoarma was what I needed to cheer me up. He chatted away to us as he worked on the bulk order of Shoarmas. Everybody likes Shoarmas! He was a jolly guy,50 year old, an immigrant from Turkey who had come to Liege 30 years ago, and an avid marathon runner! We had planned to stop only for utmost 20 minutes. But as we chatted away, everyone was drawn into conversation and we were there for more than an hour. In the end we were sad to leave and he was sad to let us go. We thanked him for staying up that night, it was a very rare moment, making a real friend in a country 1000s of miles away from home.
We now come to SPEED. We had been careful not to go too fast but as the acceleration of the car was almost imperceptible, we easily tricked my mom who told my dad not to drive faster than 120kmph, but we punched it up to a 180! The drag usually accompanying high speeds was not present due to the 'too smooth' road. Once I told my dad to pull the car over to the service lane as I wanted to check on the tyres, when I got out, other cars flashed past at breakneck speeds, whipping up winds which pushed me back. Only then did I understand how fast we'd actually been driving! Faster!
Late that night, we had just crossed the Netherlands border when I saw Eindhoven being blacked out on a highway sign, I thought "That can't be good". Half an hour later I would find how right I was. The high way to Eindhoven was blocked and we had to reroute, the highway personnel were of no use as they spoke only Dutch. I tried saying Eindhoven weg....weg...wijze....nord? (Road,Road,Way,North) but it was of no use. Of the three cars in our troop one car had somehow found a way to Eindhoven and was long gone but 2 of us were still in Bunde, rounding back and again to a particular railway junction! I then had a brain wave, I plotted us a route to a city east of us instead of north to Eindhoven and then from there we got back to Eindhoven through a different motorway.
It was an amazing experience, and even though I know this is long, its not over yet! On our way back we were in the fast lane overtaking a convoy of horse carrying trucks when the inside of our car flashed blue, a Politie car was just behind and we had no place to pull over to! We had no other option but to floor the accelerator and speed up to 195(!) to over take the convoy fully. We then watched the politie car overtake us and it was soon was out of sight, probably going at speeds of 250. It sure was a day for speed and it had been a very exciting day. This was one of my best trips in Europe ever.
You might wonder about the extra weight being given to cars and speed, as an Indian, these speeds were completely new to me, my maximum speed perhaps being a 60 in the busy Indian streets. Besides I have always been a car lover, so I have an eye for these things.
We reached Eindhoven at three in the morning. Before we tucked in, exhausted, I was told that we were going to Brussels the next day, starting at eight in the morning, I was too tired even to protest!
