| When I pulled back the blind this morning a huge great river cruiser had just docked right in front of the campervan spaces, so rather than be the focus of attention for everyone on board while having their breakfast on deck ,I drove down the quay 500 yards to a quiet spot and regained my river view for my own peaceful breakfast.  The Arnhem Quay camping spot : the Rhine cruisers are strongly in evidence here, spoiling some other camper's breakfast Setting off later, I trundled my imaginary Sherman tank over Arnhem Bridge and headed for Nijmegen. I timed it and it took just 12 minutes to drive between bridges: you can see why Arnhem was not thought to be "a bridge too far" by the Operation Market Garden planners in WW2. I had more ordeal by motorways today, about 360km journey in all ,although the final 90km was through the Luxembourg countryside by a lesser road. This time it was the Dutch roads that were very congested, but once past some huge roadworks near Maastrict, things flowed a lot better. They seem from the signs to be building a huge Euro project of a two deck underground motorway under the city, presumably to alleviate some of this congestion It’s not just British motorways that are congested, then. I’ve been lucky so far and very rarely encountered hold-ups, either in countries without so much traffic, or where motorway tolls keep the motorways clear. The landscape is not much to look at all the way across northern Germany and Holland: very flat and nondescript and you could be anywhere. The temperature touched 30 degrees at midday-too hot for a vehicle with a failed aircon. Driving down a motorway with both windows open is a windy experience. The scenery changed after Liege as I did a drive-by through Belgium.The Ardennes are very scenic: quite hilly,with huge forests,opening at times to reveal farmland and villages.This landscape continued all the way to Luxembourg city,which I first drove all the way through,then,after having dropped the van at a campsite just south of the city,went back in by bus for more of a look. Luxembourg is a Unesco World heritage city, particularly noted for its extensive medieval fortifications. Apparently, being at the crossroads for hundreds of years it has been one of the most fortified sites from the 16th century until 1857.Being in such an important location it changed hands between the Holy Roman Empire,the Burgundians,the Hapsburgs,the French and Spanish,and the Prussians. It is built on a surprisingly hilly site, with the old town on a bluff above a river gorge. The medieval Duke’s castle was on a spur of rock (the Bock promontory) projecting out above the gorge. Below this,in the gorge ,an old lower town grew up. The current Ducal palace ,moved back into the city a bit from the medieval castle ,is 16th century. The old city centre is a busy place , but is just 600metres across ,constrained by geography, and the suburbs begin the other side of a dip. A fair bit of the central city is pedestrianised. Great swathes of fortification remain all along the edge of the city which overlooks the gorge, and paths lead diagonally downwards in many places. |
Luxembourg.The old city is on the top of the bluff,defended by fortifications.The old lower town is down by the small river below the cliff.The long buff-coloured building at the centre -top of the picture is the Luxembourg parliament
 The 'Bock Promontory'.The old medieval Ducal castle was on the spur of rock centre -left. Not much remains, although the little bridge below survives from the 15th century. |  The current Ducal palace(16th century).It has a military sentry marching up and down outside. |
I wasn’t sure what language I should try speaking in Luxembourg,there being a fairly equal number of signs for businesses,and various notices, in both French and German, so I stuck to English which seemed to work.But listening to the people talk,I was not sure what I was hearing.As a tourist,you will be spoken to in French,if not in English, but I heard what was either French with a very strong dialect,but then it kept sounding like German,or even Dutch.Was I hearing Wallonian,or Flemish ? I had to look it up and was surprised to find that the language is ……..Luxembourgish ! This is a Germanic language with some French elements,but wouldn’t be understood by a German. My linguistic guide tells me that “it belongs to the west Central German group of High German languages and is a primary example of a Moselle Franconian language”.A similar,although slightly different dialect is spoken in a same-sized area of territory over the German border.Interestingly, apparently,a Moselle Franconian dialect is spoken by those ethnic Germans in the Siebenburgen in Transylvania.And most amazing of all,there are at least 5 dialects of Luxembourgish,all of which I find hard to believe in these multimedia times without borders, which mirrors what I was told in Lithuania, that there are at least three dialects there, and the speakers of one may not understand the others.
Waiting at the same bus stop to head out of the city, there was a German couple in their 70’s,as brown as pickled walnuts, holding a guide to Luxembourg. My diagnosis was that they were archetypal campervan folk and must be heading my way: and so it proved: they are in the VW camper next to mine on the site. So this is what happens, once you get bitten by the campervan bug ;you end up travelling Europe in a pair of shorts , chasing the sun,till the end of your days.
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Waiting at the same bus stop to head out of the city, there was a German couple in their 70’s,as brown as pickled walnuts, holding a guide to Luxembourg. My diagnosis was that they were archetypal campervan folk and must be heading my way: and so it proved: they are in the VW camper next to mine on the site. So this is what happens, once you get bitten by the campervan bug ;you end up travelling Europe in a pair of shorts , chasing the sun,till the end of your days.
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