With my mum having been dating a Luxembourger for several years now, I knew
that one day I'd visit Luxembourg itself - and last week that opportunity came
when they got married!
Saturday 31st May 2025
We'd originally planned to go to Dyffryn Gardens to see the Helios sculpture
on Saturday morning, but unfortunately Welsh winds had other plans. It seems
winds have kept it down for most of the week it's been here in Wales.
I headed to London in the early afternoon. Caitlin and I enjoyed a lovely
touristy run around Battersea Park and Clapham Common, ending with iced
coffees in the sun.
Sunday 1st June 2025
Happily not too early of a start thanks to the Eurostar. On route we changed
at Brussels and spent an hour whizzing around, primarily to the Tintin shop
and to find a waffle. The next train was simple in plan (direct train Brussels
-> Luxembourg City), but not so much in nature (1hr delay on the train, bus
replacement in Luxembourg). Fortunately we were very kindly rescued by mum and
JC in Arlon (last stop in Belgium) to save us some trouble.
Monday 2nd June 2025
I didn't know a lot about Luxembourg, but I do know that it is known for
its castles, of which Vianden (I am told) is the most well known.
It certainly was very pretty, but the highlight for us was the chair lift to
the top.
Coffee/lunch with a view, then a walk around the castle and forest, with the
added bonus of exciting themed playground equipment.
According to a Ruthy tradition, we also visited some borders on our way home
- hello Germany!
Tuesday 3rd June 2025
Tuesday was errand day for the wedding - organising balloons, flowers, and
viewing the venue.
A grown up's (mum)
breakfast.
In the afternoon I'd found us a high ropes place at
Parc Le'h Adventures only 15 minutes away and successfully wheedled it into the itinerary.
We (mum, JC, Cait and I) did the first circuit, and upon reaching the end we
discovered after opening the course start for us, they'd forgotten to let
down the ladder at the end to allow us off! JC was the hero of the hour and
managed to jump down and release the ladder for all of us, after which he
decided firm ground was his friend and left us to tackle the more tricky
circuit.
And it definitely was challenging! Both mum and I were brave enough to try
the leap of faith onto a rope net, but not strong enough to hold onto the
net against our momentum pulling us back - so I dangled around for a bit
waiting for a hand back up. They then waited around for the same thing to
happen to mum and rescued her back to the netting too. For the rest of the
course we were followed around every so often by a worker on a bike to
ensure we didn't need more helping! A very taxing but very rewarding and fun
climb. Cait took the easy zip wire option, but had to tolerate our moaning
about our aching arms and chest for the next few days.
We'd unintentionally spent several hours climbing around trees so it was a
hurried evening of shopping, cooking, and eating before Mark's flight landed
that evening. To help us more, he was early - cheeky thing.
Wednesday 4th June 2025
We were joined by JC's sister (Marie-Anne) & brother-in-law (John) on a
walk around the Nommern in the Mullerthal region. Mum was especially keen to
show us some cool rocks, which I'm always up for (to say nothing of Mark the
climber).
I was intrigued by these (vertical) rock formations which looked like
water.
In the afternoon the 5 of us (Marie-Anne and John headed back) drove to
Larochette to have a picnic lunch near the castle.
We then headed to Remish to play mini golf (also often a request on the
itinerary). We enjoyed playing (me losing) mini golf whilst looking over
the river Moselle at Germany on the other side.
Thursday 5th June 2025
Luxembourg City was the remaining big attraction, so mum, Caitlin, Mark
and I headed in. We took full advantage of free public transport in
Luxembourg and managed to tick off a train, a few trams, a funicular, and a
glass lift (not sure if that counts). The geography of Luxembourg City is
pretty cool, as it sits around and in a big gorge cut away by the Alzette
and Pétrusse rivers.
Friday 6th June 2025
The wedding day!
The morning was slow and steady - picking up balloons, doing hair, sorting
out bits and bobs. We even had time for a card game! We'd been warily eyeing
the weather forecast all week expecting rain, but were really lucky in that
the only shower just before the ceremony brought gorgeous blue skies with
it.
The ceremony was held in a lovely old building in Bettembourg, then came the
mingling with champagne, and the corralling everyone into photos.
Cait, Mark and I ran ahead to decorate the dinner venue prior to everyone
else arriving - but due to Luxembourg's blue tac deficit most of the photos
had a slow descent to the floor over the evening. The decoration highlight
ended up being the glow stick heart glasses, which mum enjoyed passing
around to everyone. The highlight for JC was the bamkuch - a traditional
wedding cake.
All in all a lovely time in Luxembourg & celebrating mum and JC :)
