Snowboarding trip, Post 1: Luxembourg

So, our snowboarding trip!! Here goes...

On Saturday 16^th Feb, we set off around 3:30am to drive to Folkestone, where we were taking a ridiculously early EuroTunnel crossing slot (5:20am) since it is much cheaper to travel at inconvenient times. :) On the train, we loaned some sticky tape to the people in the two cars in front of us, who used it to attach their improvised headlight converters fashioned with pieces of cardboard, as they had forgotten to buy the proper converters. (These are a legal requirement when driving in Europe, to stop oncoming drivers being dazzled in right-side drive countries.)

After arriving in France, we hit the highway and headed for the home of our friends Elaine and Francisco in Luxembourg, 4.5 hours away. Once there, we were shown to the attic – the fourth floor of their house – to inspect the work that Francisco, his father, and his brother David have been doing to turn the space into a guest room and storage area. Francisco's mum was making lunch, and after Elaine came back from shopping, the seven of us sat down to a very delicious meal.

Afterwards, we ate the apple pie that Ben had made for them, which dominated the conversation for quite some time as he was asked all about how he'd made it (with Elaine and Francisco translating)! Francisco's parents speak Spanish and French (plus a little German – and maybe Luxembourgish?), and Francisco, Elaine and David all speak English, Spanish, French, German and Luxembourgish – very awesome!!!!

That afternoon, Francisco and Elaine drove us to a few spots in Luxembourg for a taste of the national activity: walking!! :) First, we parked in an area known locally as “Little Switzerland”, and walked along a scrub/bush (forest doesn't feel right :P) track below some small rock cliffs alongside the road. We saw a pretty stream, an awesome stone arch bridge, and “Luxembourg's most photographed waterfall” (about a metre high)! Afterwards, we stopped for a quick drink before continuing our drive.

The next spot we stopped at had an amazing collection of giant rocks with a maze of fissures forming “hallways” (or open-topped tunnels) to walk through – and yes, Ben and Francisco hid up ahead and jumped out to scare me!! It was absolutely breathtaking (the rock corridors, not the being jumped out at)... the rock walls had big bubble-like holes and were quite green, the ground was covered in orange-brown fallen leaves, and there were actually icicles hanging from the rock in some places! Will let the photos explain the rest!

Later on, we stopped for a quick look at a castle ruin.

That night, I played the guitar and sang for Elaine and Francisco, and discovered one of the most appreciative (and willing to sing along!) audiences I have yet had the pleasure to come across. :D Very very fun!!! (When we arrived back at their place the following weekend on our way home, we learnt that they had found “Cows With Guns” (one of my recent repertoire additions) online and had been singing along to (and laughing at) it all week!!!)

On Sunday, we went to their meeting, which was in French, German and English, with simultaneous translation (using microphone/headphone sets) into the other two languages occurring much of the time!!

We hit the road straight afterwards, en route to Munich (4 or 5 hours) to collect Donna before getting to Kaprun that night (2 or 3 hours). Anyway, this entry will have taken long enough once I add all the photos, so I will start the next one in Munich and take it from there. (Can you believe that, until tonight, I was silly enough to think I might have been able to write about the entire snowboarding trip in only one blog post?! Haven't even seen a snowboard yet in this saga!) Goodnight!