Little Luxembourg and Tiny Trier

November 1st is a long weekend in France, and my husband is not one to 'waste' a long weekend....in order to add another country to his life list (he's up to 29) he cooked up the idea of a driving weekend, to Luxembourg. But a colleague had told him that Luxembourg was actually pretty boring, and suggested we stay a mere half hour away in the German town of Trier. And so, "Ka" rented (the car was honestly called a Ford Ka) off we went.

We like driving holidays. Its nice to be your own man (woman), hit the road, go where the spirit takes you. Especially since we are no longer Ka owners (Ok I will stop) its a treat to drive. Despite drizzly weather, we were thrilled to see beautiful fall foliage to rival the Gatineaus back home. The colors of the leaves, hills and countryside were truly stupendous, and reminded us how good it is to get out of the city.

And we believe small is beautiful. Take Luxembourg, for example. We arrived quite late (I admit I spent a good part of the day shopping at Ikea...but you have to take full advantage when you've got a car!) so we simply parked and headed out for a stroll. The air was evening crisp, and the sun was just going down. Spread below us like a lovely carpert was a deep gully that had been made into a park. Stone walls rose up from this, watched over by the city itself. At night this gorge was equally stunning due to atmospheric lighting. We explored the local church (burnt, bombed and rebuilt many times) and had dinner in a more than passable Mexican restaurant (these are rare in Paris, so we took a chance...and it was very good! No translations needed on the menu!) Luxembourg has spent much of its history being occupied (by France, Germany and Belgium) and stripped of its lands (same countries) but remains a fiercly independent little duchy. Greg's buddy was partly right-there isn't much to 'see' per se- and yet Luxembourg is a lovely little place to visit for a short stint.

We went on to Trier that same night, checking into our hotel quite late. The only room left had been smoked in (despite the non smoking policy) which really doesn't work for pregnant asthmatics, so the kindly proprietor found us another room.....in a handicapped suite! This room was rather dorm like, and there was a seat in the shower (which was actually quite handy for me) as well as power lift beds (woohoo!) ...however the full on German breakfast the next morning more than made up for the oddness of the accomadations.

As the seat of the Roman Empire for several years, Trier has an amazing amount of history for such a small place. We looked at Ponto Negra, the largest Roman city gate in the world; the oldest building in Germany (oddly painted in a Moroccan style which was fashionable at the time) and Emperor Constantine's Throne Room (the only intact room in the world from Roman times, and still in use today as a church). There was lots of charming traditional architecture, and a delicious lunch spot for German sausage and spatzle for lunch. Greg went to look at Karl Marx's birthplace while Meg shopped a bit, and then we hopped in the Ka for the drive home, appreciating again how good things come in small towns.

P.S. Greg wants me to mention specifically that we drive through 4 countires in one day: France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany......this is a pretty neat thing for people from Canada, where you can barely cover one province in a day!