e2e.bike

Cycling adventures across Yorkshire, Britain and beyond

Menu
  • End to Ends
    • Britain
    • Ireland
    • France
    • Spain
    • Portugal
    • Belgium
    • Netherlands
    • Luxembourg
    • Denmark
    • Austria
    • Switzerland
    • Czechia
    • Slovakia
    • Poland
    • Latvia
    • Cuba
    • Sri Lanka
    • Taiwan
    • Isle of Man
    • Faroes
    • Liechtenstein
  • Coast to Coasts
  • Yorkshire Ridings
  • Others
  • Writings
Menu
← PreviousNext →

Luxembourg 1: Aldi to Wiltz

Posted on 18 May 202421 May 2024 by Rob Ainsley

A big small country, or a small big country? As European micro-states go, Luxembourg is macro. By dwarf standards, a giant. At 2,600km2, it’s positively Russian compared to compact Andorra (468km2), tiny Malta (316km2), bijou Liechtenstein (160km2), minuscule San Marino (61km2), microscopic Monaco (2km2), and nano-scale Vatican City (0.4km2).

A proper country, with its own army and football team and beers and language and everything (yes, Luxembourgish, a should’ve-gone-to-Specsavers distortion of German). A Grand Duchy, no less, whose longtime economic streamlining with Belgium and the Netherlands (as Benelux, which sounds like a vacuum cleaner) showed the way for the EU, of which it is an enthusiastic member: the border-wiping Schengen Agreement is named after the Luxy village in which the treaty was signed.

The northernmost bike in Luxembourg

Schengen is down at the southeastern corner of the country, and that’s where I’ll end this pocket-sized End to End. And I began today at the northern extremity, which is, er, an Aldi.

I stayed last night at Gouvy, in the south of Belgium. The Simon and Garfunkel song was appropriate, because I was indeed Feelin’ Gouvy. Thanks to the Dutch peer-to-peer cyclist hospitality network Vrienden op de Fiets, I had a cosy holiday cottage to myself for €25.

Exclamation point: Marker at Luxembourg’s northernmost bit

My miniature odyssey started with a few miles’ rolling pedal through damp drizzly farmland to the Luxembourg border. The northern limit of the Duchy is marked by two stones, one of them a fine pointy thing like a giant iron counter in a board game of international warfare.

Indeed, this very location used to be the tripoint where Prussia, Belgium and Luxembourg met: the marker is dated 1843. International territorialising now is more about big business, so it’s appropriate that the furthest-north thing in Luxy is a branch of Aldi on a borderlands industrial estate. I’d had a fine breakfast in my cottage, so I didn’t need to drop in.

Driving like L: Drivers flock to Luxembourg… for cheap petrol

First impressions of Luxembourg were that it consists chiefly of petrol stations, which tells you something: cheaper fuel prices here mean it’s a destination for Belgian drivers to fill their tanks. Petroleum tourism. Second impression was of a lot of slugs crossing the road.

Mist opportunity: Foggy up in Luxembourg today

My recent End to End of the Netherlands started with a tripoint followed immediately by the country’s highest point, and that was mirrored here. Luxembourg’s top summit is Kneiff, a bland, rounded hilltop a couple of kilometres from that Aldi on a quiet rural lane.

Kneiff skills: Marker stone for Luxembourg’s highest point

At 560.05m – that five centimetres is clearly vital – it’s a whole metre loftier than Buurgplatz, which until 1997 was thought to be the Duchy’s Everest.

Tower power: Lots of this kind of thing today

So it was downhill all the way from here, through thickening fog and clammy drizzle. There was a succession of Saturday-quiet villages and towns with nobody about, and humdrum roads through rolling green farmscapes – not unpleasant at all, but little to quicken the pulse, certainly not the gentle ascents and downhills.

Downhill from here: Descent to join the railtrail at Winseler

However, an exciting plunge down from the village of Noertrange got me to an excellent railtrail, running 21km along the old line between Wiltz and Bastogne, in Belgium.

Illuminating: Well-lit tunnel on the Bastogne-Wiltz railtrail

This was a joy: no sound but birdsong, the hum of my wheels on smooth tarmac, and the rumble of my stomach. (Today was a sandwiches-subsistence day.)

Flat calm: Tranquil valley scenery on the Bastogne-Wiltz railtrail

I rode up to Schleif and back to enjoy the lush river-valley scenery before following the track into Wiltz, where I had booked the only affordable Saturday night accommodation in the country this bank holiday weekend.

Eat sandwiches here: Rest stop on the Bastogne-Wiltz railtrail

Wiltz wasn’t exactly overwhelming at first sight this rainy, gloomy afternoon. The centre seemed unfocused and annoyingly stretched out up and down slopes, the supermarkets were grubby, and outside the Grand Rue there were no promising places to eat.

Making the cut: Rock face on the Bastogne-Wiltz ralitrail

However, my afternoon was rescued on finding the Brewing Museum, right in the castle off the Grand Rue. Wiltz is something of a beer town; Simon beers are based here, and there’s a microbrewery in the museum itself. Even better, the tours – and tastings – were free today, thanks it being Museums Day, or something.

Fortified: Brewing Museum in Wiltz Castle

Claude, the brewery guide, proved a genial and enthusiastic host. I was particularly impressed with he and his fellow brewers’ promotional activities over the years. Belgian popular culture is strong on comics, bandes dessinées, and they’d commissioned a series of Astérix-style humorous graphic novels setting the legend of Gambrinus, the King of Beer. In a variety of languages, of course – including Luxembourgish.

Your friendly guides to the story of Gambrinus

I supped a refreshing bottle of the microbreweries’s Elixir (spicy, gingery, hints of toffee apple, Elixir and Vienna hops). I was assured that, as a low-alcohol but full-taste ale, it was ‘good for cyclists’.

Hmm: 3.2% isn’t that low. But I wasn’t complaining. And, though I can’t understand much Luxembourgish, I can certainly understand the international language of beer.

A good day. Cheers!

Miles today: 35
Miles since Aldi: 31

Previous
←   WoR 1970s 4: Pocklington to Bridlington
Next
Luxembourg 2: Wiltz to Luxembourg City →

You are here

e2e.bike > End to Ends > Luxembourg > Luxembourg 1: Aldi to Wiltz

Recent Posts

  • Germany 9: Kassel to Beverungen 14 September 2025
  • Germany 8: Bad Hersfeld to Kassel 13 September 2025
  • Germany 7: Kothen to Bad Hersfeld 12 September 2025

Random Posts

  • B2Y 5: Leicester to Spalding22 January 2012
    Another wind-assisted day, from Rutland’s rolling hills to south Lincs’s pancake flatness: …
  • Stevenage 1: Old Town, New Town6 November 2019
    Excellent first day researching bike routes with Nigel around Stevenage, a traditional …
  • Quirky London 22: George Inn22 February 2010
    Where is it? One of the quirkiest, and best, pubs to cycle …

Search e2e.bike

Find me

        
Facebook • Bluesky • Linked In • Email
© 2025 e2e.bike | Powered by Minimalist Blog WordPress Theme