Luxembourg; Monday, 26 June, 2006

After checking out and dumping my luggage in the left luggage lockers at the station (now where have I done that before...?) I caught the train back out to Ettelbruck and picked up the bus to Bourscheid. The only attraction in Bourscheid is the Château, which is located about half way down the hill, about a kilometre out of the centre of town. Unfortunately, that information was not readily available so I spent the best part of 40 minutes wandering around the town before finally checking the guidebook again to discover the simple line "Set below the village"

The Château looks in good shape from the outside, but inside is a shell. There are excellent views of the valley and the river from the top of the main tower, and a small exhibition of archaeological remains on the first floor of the only surviving building. Bizarrely enough the top two floors have an exhibition on photographs of Ireland which took me a little by surprise.

After walking back up (and I do mean up) the hill to the bus stop I caught the bus back to Ettelbruck and from there on to Dillingen on the road to Echternach. I'd gone there as it was the closest I could get to the remains of the Château at Beaufort by public transport at that time of day (or so I thought, it transpired that there were semi-regular busses from Echternach!) In a disastrous case of misreading I saw the walking plan to get to the castle but didn’t spot that the path changes colour part way. Instead of a 5K round walk with a stop at the castle it transpired (by the time I got back) that it was 5K there and another 5K back. After an hours walking, with no Château in sight I turned back, convinced I had gone the wrong way and rushing to ensure that I caught the bus to ensure I got back to Luxembourg in time to get the train to Liege.

I got back to the bus stop in plenty of time and looked at the map at which point I spotted my mistake, and the fact that about two further bends around the path I would have come across the Château!

The bus whisked me on to Echternach where I caught the express back to Luxembourg in time to pick up some food for the train, my luggage and a ticket to Liege. By the time I collapsed into the seat on the train I was exhausted, and the blister on my left foot felt alarmingly large!