Believers or non believers in the Grand Duchy

13th May 2009

We arrived in Belgium last night after having spent a great 10 days in
Luxembourg. So far we are enjoying Belgium. I am sat in a cafe in Malmedy
writing this while Chris is very happily paging through our new Belgian
"all things chocolate" recipe book.

Anyway our route through Luxembourg took us into the country from the south
to a place called Dudelange and then on into the wooded valleys and castles
of the Ardennes region in the North around Esch Sur Sure.

Dudelange is an ex mining town, although much nicer than you would expext
as a result! We stayed here for 5 nights spending time cycling the local
area, exploring the town and spending a few days in luxembourg city itself.

The city is fantastic, situated on the cliffs of two river valleys. The
river terraces were covered with allotments of which I was very envious,
and surrounded by the remains of the fortifications on the cliffs
(picture). ON our second day in the city we went to the town museum. These
are usually really interesting and often fusty places with the most random
collections of artifacts. Luxembourg's on the other hand is very modern. On
arrival we were asked if we were believers or non believers and given USB
sticks accordingly! This was so that we could take part in an exhibition on
faith. IT was extremly interesting as it was made up of video and audio
clips of people talking about their beliefs and attitudes to prayer. All
quite thought provoking. The USB stick was used at various points to ask
questions and at the end tell you what attitude you had to faith.

After we left dudelange we spent a couple of nights canoing on the river
sure. It was great to finally get the canoe out again and we are now all
enthused to find some more lakes and rivers for the summer. Watch this
space.....

Yesterday we left Luxembourg, having spent a day touring the castles at
Borscheid and Viandan, and visted Clervaux and its family of man photo
exhibition. This is a brilliant collection of old black and white images
from all over the world depicting people getting on with their daily lives.
My favourite was a photo of an audience, who were, judging by themajority
of their faces watching something very funny. It was one of those photos
that you could make up stories around for ever. Luxembourg was definately
worth visiting, and at the risk of sounding like their tourist office should
definately not be overlooked for its bigger neighbours.