A Trip down Memory Lane - trekking from Germany to Luxemburg

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.