Roadtrippin' Euro Style

This past Sunday the 14^th was my wonderful husband’s birthday and he decided to celebrate by planning a trip to Luxembourg and it would be a roadtrip. We packed up Friday night the 12^th to be ready to leave Saturday morning. We left about 9:40 on Saturday morning down to our first stop. I made a playlist on my ipod that included some Wizard Rock, Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, and more. I was making sure that we had some tunes to keep up going, especially me since I was the one to start off driving. I drove over an hour down to Namur, Belgium where we took a tour of the Citadelle de Namur which was a great way to start the trip. After our tour we sat down in the parking lot with sandwiches I made before Oli took the wheel and we went to our next stop. We made our last Belgian stop in Bastogne which is in the general area where the Battle of the Bulge in World War 2 took place. Here we had a proper lunch had a fry shop and watched a wedding processional as we were right across the street from the Hotel de Ville (City Hall). We then drove the short distance to the Mardasson Memorial which is a memorial from the Belgians to the Americans who fought.

The real adventured started when we left the memorial. Oli was driving and we were going to head into Luxembourg and there was a freeway entrance pointing to Luxembourg and Oli passed it. We ended up off course for about 45 minutes as we drove through the deep countryside. I had a good laugh at Oli as we figured out way out of the countryside and onto a freeway that would take us where we needed to go. Finally on track we made it to the border of Luxembourg which was excited for me because it was another European country off of my list. It wasn’t far to the city of Clervaux where we were staying at the Hotel du Commerce. We checked in at the hotel and during check-in we looked at the brochures of places to visit which included this orchid garden/forest and we thought it would be cool to visit. Since we had been driving we decided that we would get some rest and then get dressed for dinner. We went to dinner at the hotel restaurant because it was included in our stay for the first night. After dinner there was a concert going on in  the town square just under the castle so we went and enjoyed some songs before heading back to the hotel for the night.

The next day was August 14^th and Oli’s actual birthday. (HAPPY 37^TH BABE!) It started to rain and the smart person I am, I forgot my hoodie back home in Belgium. We decided to figure out how far the orchid place was by putting the address in our TomTom. We couldn’t for anything find this city in the TomTom so I told Oli that he should use his phone to get onto their website. As we went to do that we realized the address was (dot)de which meant the place was in Germany. We knew we were not too far from the border and when we found it in the TomTom it was only 45 minutes away so why not give it a try. We went to head out on the journey of the day and we got to the car to realize that Oli had left the driver’s side window down all night long. Luckily it is a nice quiet safe town so nothing was missing, but the problem was it had rained all night long. Oli’s seat was of course wet so we put his safety vest on the seat for him to be able to drive without getting wet. We decided to go to a mall about 25 minutes away and have lunch at a place across from the mall that Oli’s parents had suggested. From there we decided to make the journey to Germany to find the orchid place. I was super excited to go to Germany for the first time. We made it over to the border and headed towards the place where there was a sign that apparently said in German that the road we needed was closed due to works. Oli luckily knows a bit of German. We decided to take the alternate route which was soooo long and took us through winding forests and farm roads. Finally after an eternity of crazy roads we made it to the orchid place. We get there and it is the lamest place EVER. Someone took their house and made it into an orchid shop basically with a restaurant upstairs. There was really nothing exciting. There were orchids everywhere to be bought and that was pretty much it. We slipped out of the place and went to head back to Luxembourg. When we returned to Clervaux we walked around the town taking pictures and having 
a waffle at a little café. We had a nice dinner at the hotel that night. 

The next morning it was time to pack up and check-out of the hotel. It took us about an hour and we drove from Clervaux, Luxembourg to Luxembourg, Luxembourg the capital. Due to it being a holiday most places were closed and so we just walked around taking pictures before we took a little motor-train tour which was fun. After that we went back to the car. Because we went west it was only a matter of minutes before we were over the Belgium border. We then pulled into a rest stop and I took the wheel and drove us the rest of the way home with a few tiny car arguments over the annoying driving rules of Belgium. Overall it was a FANTASTIC trip and Luxembourg is my new favorite country. It is just all over beautiful and so different from Belgium in that everything isn’t all brick, but very individual and colorful. I also love their crazy language of Luxembourgish which seemed to be a crazy, but workable mix between French and German. It was funny because on the way down to Luxembourg city we stopped at a gas station and the people who worked there did not speak French and only Luxembourgish and it was a funny situation trying to figure everything out. A great time and Oli had a fab birthday.

Just a few notes:

I want to extend my prayers and thoughts to the families who lost loved ones during the music festival stage accident here in Belgium. The death toll rose to 5 today. I can say from personal experience that the storm that swept though was quick and it was expected, but unexpected at the same time. It was only minutes and it 
was crazy.


I am also wishing my cousin Hakeem and his fiancee Dena luck on their wedding tomorrow. I love you guys!

Also wishing a safe labor for my family friend Byquesha who is currently having a baby girl. I hope to hear news soon and see pictures of the new baby girl Jazalynn. Top of Form