{"id":21641,"date":"2025-07-02T04:44:20","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T08:44:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aleta.life\/?p=21641"},"modified":"2025-08-26T06:14:22","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T10:14:22","slug":"learning-our-abcs-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aleta.life\/index.php\/2025\/07\/02\/learning-our-abcs-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning our ABCs \u2013 2"},"content":{"rendered":"
Position: 48\u00b017’45.8″N 4\u00b004’29.1″E<\/a><\/h6>\n

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From Cl\u00e9mency we made our way to Luxembourg City and spent a few hours walking around its centre. The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg exists mainly as a tax haven. Albeit with some very pretty places to visit. Its small population and high-income levels help keep its debt to GDP ratio vanishingly low. Observing Ascension Day meant light traffic and thin crowds until lunchtime. That gave us plenty of time to window shop and stroll through the thickly wooded ravine that cuts through the heart of the city. Crossing over a wide bridge towards the municipal park, we admired a couple of statues then wandered past pubs heaving with boozers and made our way back to Clarice. She had been happily charging in the carpark and awaiting our return.<\/p>\n

<\/h5>\n

Three hours was enough time to get a sense of the place. Luxembourg City is neatly organised, full of art nouveau buildings, streets of banks, and a killer shopping and dining district in its centre. Prices are high. Not New York high, but steep compared with Belgium. Someone has to pay for all that grandeur. It might as well be the tourists.<\/p>\n

V is for Vianden<\/h6>\n

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Several canyons and forests 30- and 40-kilometres northeast of the city make for good hiking. Perhaps Ascension Day means the day everyone in the country ascends from their sofa and heads outdoors for a walk. Cars lined the narrow roads feeding in and out of M\u00fcllerthal, Luxembourg\u2019s \u2018little Switzerland\u2019. That\u2019s marketing speak for an area of pretty hills and winding rivers that break up the farmland.<\/p>\n

Given the press of humanity, we drove on towards the German border and Vianden Castle, \u201cone of the most beautiful in Europe\u201d, according to the New York Times. Vianden, the town, sits alongside a river and is stuffed with seasonal hotels and caf\u00e9s. A steep cobblestoned road leads up to the castle, but you can also take a path through the woods or even ride a gondola up and walk down.<\/p>\n

Luxembourg’s rugged topography makes for winding, picturesque roads. In fair, warmer weather those roads attract gangs of motorbikers. Mostly from the UK, Holland and Germany. The terrain calls for an \u2018adventure bike\u2019, not a Harley Davidson bagger. European manufacturers dominate the adventure segment and that translates to BMW 1200GSs for the Germans and Triumph Tiger 900XCs for the Brits (and occasional Frenchman). Riders were mostly middle-aged and older men, doctors and accountants, with an occasional female partner riding pillion. I was jealous. It would be great territory for Carol and me on Lily, my Tiger 800XC.<\/p>\n

Having trudged up the hill and admired the price of admission to the castle, Carol, as marshal of land manoeuvres, decided our tour of the Duchy was sufficiently complete. I spun Clarice round and headed south. To France and Champagne.<\/p>\n

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