Recently, thinking about the good old times, when I was
still a student at the University of Tübingen,
it came back to my mind an old journey. The only regret I have is not having my
own pictures. Back in the days when digital cameras were still a novelty, also
their prices were not affordable, and student’s life
is notoriously cheap.
So, here it was the plan that took us, two friends of mine
and I, on the road for one week walking from Tübingen
(Germany) to Luxembourg. The route was covered both by walking (which was the
most interesting and also demanding part of the journey) and by train/bus.
It would have been nice to walk the whole distance, but I
have to admit that to walk 300 km would have taken more than just 7 days, so we
needed a compromise. The journey was planned meticulously on schedule, routes, and hostels where to sleep.
For people who are in good physical shape, this is a highly
recommended trip, as you get to travel through the
beauties of the sweet landscapes of Southern Germany, especially the Rhine Valley, which is one of the most enchanting places.
I also suggest having a small group, avoid being alone, as
it might get really stressing, and if something happens in the middle of the
forest, you might be on your own. I considered that a group of three people was
the ideal, at least for us, and since incidents have happened all along the way, I was glad not to be alone.
The episode I will remember for the rest of my life was when
in the middle last leg of our journey, close to Luxembourg border, and in the
middle of the forest, too far to come back from the town we left and from any
other inhabited places was when the soles of my trekking shoe detached from the
rest of the shoe. It was only on one side, but I can assure you, in that moist
environment, I had my feet soaked in seconds.
It felt like walking on mud barefoot.
We tried to fix it the best we could and decided to continue
our journey to the next leg we scheduled. NOTE TO SELF, don’t plan any journey with a strict
schedule, keep it as flexible as possible. The problem was that I could not
find a shoe shop for a big part of our journey. This brought me to the decision
to continue my journey to Luxembourg by train/bus, waiting for my mates to
reach the destination after three days. Luckily, we all had mobile phones so we could keep in touch.
It was sad that I could not walk with them, and that I could
share only half of the trip in their company, but my feet could not really
stand that condition.
Therefore, I reached Luxembourg
city comfortably, got my new shoes, which felt like a blessing, and
could explore the city, something that couldn’t be
done if I was to stick to the schedule.
So, a couple of words about Luxembourg city. Architecturally speaking, it is a nice blend of
Southern Germany and Eastern France. The language spoken is Luxembourgish,
French and German which are the three official languages. Let’s say that you can survive with English,
but you’d better have at least a
small knowledge of one of those three. It seems like when you say that you have
been on holiday in Luxembourg, many
people might look at you like to say “why in
the world would you go there? What is there so interesting to be seen?”
Well, besides being a very enchanting city, it is everything,
but a boring destination and you might find out that perhaps it is worth to plan
a longer holiday to discover all the beauties it holds, mostly from the
historical places. The history, if you are going to research it a bit, is quite
complex for such a small country, and being underestimated is something to be
expected.
Moreover, I would have also liked to take a tour outside the
city, as Luxembourg is a very diverse country accommodating different cultures,
and heritage.
At that time, I was lucky because I had a good knowledge of
German, (which I’ve lost to learn Finnish).
Another good point was that I could stay in the city and visit it for a longer
time than my other two travel mates, which arrived as scheduled within three
days, and after a small tour, we took a
train/bus combination to reach Tübingen
in a short time.
I am really sorry for not having any picture to show you, I
had only paper photos, and I tried to scan them, but the result was quite unsatisfactory.
I promise to go back and update this blog post with new pictures that can give
you a better idea of the place.
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