Europe 2019 - Day 13

19 May 2019, Sunday

It is not sinus. I have a cold. It sucks. I should be in a warm bed sleeping. Instead today I go to see a castle in Vianden. Luckily the hostel includes breakfast and I had 2 cups of hot cappuccino.

Then to Vianden which involved 2 buses, a train and another bus. It takes about 1 and a half hours altogether. We left our luggage at the train station. Vianden is situated near the River Our. Apparently Victor Hugo lived here once upon a time when he was in exile. Then we walked about 1 km uphill to the Castle of Vianden! 

What can I say. It’s beautiful to see. The castle had its origins during Roman times in 360-450 AD as a sentry post, but changed facades and hands many times throughout history. Around 1100, it became the residence of the Counts of Vianden, and that was when the tallest towers were erected. By 1820 it had lost its significance and importance and therefore fell into ruin. It was then acquired by the city of Luxembourg in 1977 and restored. William of Orange was one of the residents here in about 1544.

After French revolutionary troops conquered Vianden in 1795, the county ceased to exist. Vianden’s comital title, however, endures but without the originally associated privileges. Since 2013, the “Count of Vianden” is the King of the Netherlands. According to Dutch law, he is allowed to carry the titles of his ancestors, provided they do not entail legal claims for existing territories. 

We walked through the entire castle; it was well documented with a lot of information along the way. But the restoration works were a bit too modern and ‘touristy’ for me. So I liked the exterior of the castle more than its interior because it was more authentic. But all in all, I really like Luxembourg. It’s a beautiful country despite being hilly and small. Certainly if I have the chance I will come back here again. 

Then we were done and made our way back to Brussels. On the way we stopped at Dragenbus Kasteel. I’m not sure what this is, there is a lack of information on this place. If I were to guess, it was once some sort of castle and now a dwelling place for someone rich because it was heavily gated with ‘Private Property’ and ‘Beware of Dog’ written everywhere.

The Kasteel was near the pub we went to on our first night in Brussels so we decided to stop for a drink before heading home. But before that we went into this small shop selling some food, and we ordered some chicken wings and pasta. What arrived was chicken wings and fries. A lot of fries. I dunno where the miscommunication was but we didn’t want to start any trouble so we just ate it.

Then to the pub where we were such a hit with the patrons there that we ended up having 3 glasses of beer (I tried another local beer called Jupiler but I prefer Maes Pils draught) absolutely free of charge, my friend gave one of her t-shirts to the bartender as it had a shark on it and he loved hammerhead sharks, and we all became Facebook fiends. 

Then to the AirB&B to shower and sleep, it was already past 1 by the time I went to bed. I’m still feeling under the weather but was reasonably ok in Vianden because the weather there was warmer. I can’t do cold weather. And Belgium is really cold, averaging about 11 to 12 degrees Celsius throughout the day.