The Buchans 2015: Rosport, Lux. and a little bit of Germany

After Luxembourg city we moved east to Rosport, a small village, on the River Sure.
The campsite is by the river and is quite large. This site like the previous one had excellent facilities that looked very new.
From here I could ride my bike along the well appointed cycle tracks. Many a morning I cycled to Echternach on the
German side of the Sure and returned on the Luxembourg side.

One of our days out started with a visit to the Luxembourg American Cemetery. Extract from their website ‘The cemetery consists of 17 acres of lawn surrounded by 33 acres of woods.
Entering through the gates, the visitor will see the impressive memorial chapel encompassed by a stone terrace directly in front of them.’ The chapel includes massive bronze doors embellished with gold leaf cartouches’.

Cemetery Chapel

Chapel with General Patton’s grave in the foreground

One of the plaques showing the battle movements in the Western Europe Operations WWII

5076 American service members lie here. Many lost their lives in the Battle of the Bulge and in the advance to the River Rhine.

Whilst walking around I spotted a food box in the shrubbery and investigated to find it was a geocache. This I thought most unusual because in UK geocaches are not usually put in cemeteries or churchyards. However, we followed the trail and each box highlighted a particular person in the cemetery with a little bit of history. The fourth and final cache was, appropriately, an ammunition box with a log book and an invitation to go to the visitor centre to collect a small gift –key ring tags. The geocache was set up be the U.S. Embassy and the American Battlefield Monument Commission.

We then drove on to Remich, about 30 minutes, by the River Moselle. The lower part of the town looked quite deserted and we realised that many of the shops had moved away because of the high risk of flooding.

Remich when flooded

Drinks in Remich close to the river.

Moving on we stopped at Mondorf-les-Bains, after seeing an advert for an Art Deco exhibition. Unfortunately it was just a taster exhibition of about 20 pieces.

Many of the older houses in Mondorf LB are built in the Art Nouveau style. Very nice.

Sue in the spa gardens

Echternach – 5 miles north of Rosport is the oldest city in the country, we had to shop here because Rosport doesn’t have any shops. I said it was small!

Little Switzerland is thought to have similar terrain to its namesake country, hence the name; it is dominated by craggy terrain, thick forests, some caves. We didn’t walk too far, but it was very impressive.

Castle Beaufort – dates from the 11th century and consists of the ruins of the medieval fortress and the adjacent chateau. We stopped here and visited the fortress on our tour of Petit Suisse (Little Switzerland).

We had a quick trip to Grevenmacher to see if I remembered any of it from my cycling trip, with friend Neil, in 1963.
I don’t think the Youth Hostel, where we stayed, is still there.

A day trip to Bernkastel Kues, Germany – about 40 miles away from Rosport. You can see the vineyards on the hills. Photo taken from the Kues side looking at Bernkastel which is the touristy side.

Bernkastel Kues - Graacher Tor
behind Sue

Marktplatz

Pointed House – dates back to 1416 and is one of the most photographed attractions along the river.

Rathaus – Town hall

Kaffee and Kuchen in Karlsbader-Platz

Another day another place, this time Trier in Germany. The city dates back to about 16BC when it was established by the Romans

Ornate doorway in the Domfreihof

Sue at the Dom

Porta Nigra – the largest Roman city gate north of the Alps

Dom St. Peter in Trier – Trier Cathedral, the oldest bishop’s church in Germany, stands today in Trier’s centre above a former palace from the era of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great.