Luxurious weekend in Luxembourg

A little while ago, we decided to take a train down to the tiny country of Luxembourg.  Nestled between Germany, France and Belgium we have skipped over this Grand Duchy in many of our travels.  With only a half million residents you can drive the width of the country in under two hours.  As luck would have it, Karen had some family living in the capital, Luxembourg City that graciously hosted us for the two days.  We met Corley and Bob (her 1st cousin, once removed) after a pleasant trip along the Rhine river through sloping vineyards and medieval villages.  Despite the rainy weather we walked through the charming center complete with local markets and ancient ruins and along the fortifications that ringed the city.  It was here that we learned about the legend of Count Siegfried and Melusina.

"Melusina is said to have been the wife of the founder of Luxembourg, Count Siegfried. When they married, she had one particular request, namely that Siegfried must leave her alone for one full day and night every month, and that he should not ask or try to find out what she was doing. Of course, Melusina was such a beautiful girl that Siegfried could not refuse her this one small wish, and all went well for years and years, when on the first Wednesday of the month, Melusina would retire into her chambers in the "Casemates", a network of caverns hewn into solid rock underneath the city, not to be seen again until early light on Thursday.

But one day, Siegfried's curiosity got the better of him. Wondering what on Earth she might be doing alone all the time, he peeped through the keyhole, and was shocked to see that Melusina was lying in the bathtub, with a fishtail hanging over the rim. As you all know, mermaids like Melusina, have a very keen sixth sense, which tells them instantly that they are being watched, and thus she recognised her husband through the door, and jumped out of the window into the river Alzette below, never to be seen again ... except every now and then, some people say they saw a beautiful girl's head pop out of the river, and a fishtail rippling the calm waters of the river Alzette."

After hearing the story, I looked hard into the River Alzette but never saw even a swish of a flipper.  

The next day we traveled to the Northern part of the country to the beautiful Vianden .  The weather was foul again as we toured the grounds of the picturesque castle and walked along the same narrow streets traversed by Victor Hugo.  Soon our weekend had wound down and Karen and I made our way back to Bonn, our bellies full of great food and drink and our heads swimming with the history and legends of this cute city.

~Kyle