Vastine adVentures: hiking

Well, this blog officially just got WAY behind. The last time I updated was May! But, I have great excuses. We have had so much fun entertaining visitors, the kids finally finished school, and I have been super busy with photo shoots. So now, I am going to make an effort to get this little blog of mine caught up. It could take a while so bear with me.

June 8-9 we headed to Luxembourg City in Luxembourg. Yes, Luxembourg is a country and even smaller than Belgium. Rhode Island is 1,545 sq miles and Luxembourg is only 999 square miles…so…it's really small. Just two hours away (Brussels to Luxembourg City,) this little country has three official languages...French, German, and Luxembourgish. But, when they spoke it was more like a combination of all three, so we stuck with English and managed just fine. Luxembourg City is beautiful and incredibly clean. We stayed in the business district for under 100 euros and could walk to the main parts of the city. On Sunday, we spent the latter part of the afternoon enjoying the city.

Can you see the kids way over there?

There they are!

The old and new

Daddy's girl

Nothing like enjoying some gospel music in the middle of Luxembourg. They were fabulous!

We ate at Chi-Chi's….which is totally embarrassing. But, it was so hot, they had one open table, and they serve margaritas that aren't terrible. Sold!

Gelato break

Our walk back to the hotel involved crossing over this bridge. Luckily, heights do not bother any of us.

Thomas was nicknamed "Stick" by the Kolvek family. He could not wait to get on wifi and share this picture with them.

Fancy new elevator. Am I behind or is this a new look? I'm probably way behind.

Crazy people

Monday (a holiday in Belgium) we were off to the "Little Switzerland" area of Luxembourg. This hiking area, just thirty minutes from Luxembourg City, came highly recommended from friends in Belgium. We are always up for a good hike, so off we went!

Our route for the day. It took about four hours total to complete the loop. In Allison's opinion, that was four hours too long. Ha!

First stop was the waterfall.

Lunch stop

Following the path markers.

Selfie time…pretending she's having fun!

Body language says so much! Maybe you shouldn't drink your two bottles of fluids in the first half hour of the hike on a 90 degree day. Just saying'...

Done… Physical activity is just not her thing. I wish you could have heard the commentary of this hike. Her leg, knee, arm, and side hurt…sometimes all at once. I'm not sure one positive comment left her mouth. To say she was driving Chris nuts would be the understatement of the century. But we love her, and once we were in the air conditioned car eating Pringles, she was just fine!

We survived! It was a great weekend, and we highly recommend this trip if you have a night to spare or even just a full day. It's nice having places like this so close. Stay tuned for the rest of June.

Until next time,

Wendy

For your reference as I rattle off towns during this post.

Cinque Terre is known for its hiking trails between towns, so we decided Sunday would be our hiking day. The trains were on strike (of course they were…we were visiting,) so the only way to get from town to town that day would be by boat or hiking. So hiking it would be. We were going to start the day hiking from Vernazza to Monterosso. Rick Steves said this was the most difficult of the hikes, so it was time to fuel up. We discovered The Blue Marlin. They had a great breakfast cooked by an American chef. Eggs and bacon were on the menu. Count us in!

Banana smoothie mustache

Uh oh….they like cappuccino.

It was sooo good! You just can't get breakfast like this in Belgium unless you cook it at home. And everyone knows it is way more fun to go out for breakfast.

Since it was Palm Sunday (we should have been at church,) the local kids were gathering with their palms near the city center.

Time for our hike. Trails are marked with red and white markers like this. Is that two hours? Two km? Who knows? We'll find out.

Lemon trees everywhere!

He sure has a spring in his step. Hope that lasts!

Overlooking Vernazza…it was beautiful. Too bad we didn't have any sunshine.

Now that I zoomed out, you can really tell how high were were.

The people were parading through the town with their palms singing hymns. Beautiful!

At least everyone will be able to see us on the trail with Chris's obnoxious shoes. ;)

The trail was pretty steep at times.

Trail markers

There's our destination! Just a ways to go. ;) It is a 1.5 hr hike, and I am happy to report we finished in 1.5 hrs just as Rick Steves said we would.

It rained most of the hike. But the cool rain actually felt nice. I did pack tennis shoes for Thomas to hike in. He missed the memo. The shoes he was wearing have no traction. Made it a little more difficult for him.

Around this area, we met up with a group who had an injured hiker. We later heard she broke her ankle. This was literally mid trail. I have no idea how they got her out. So sad.

I'm so thankful we hiked from Vernazza to Monterosso rather than the other way around. I think these steps may have killed me. There were hundreds of them, and they went straight up!

Almost there!

Il Gigante (a representation of Neptune) is at the end of the beach in the new town section of Monterosso. It is absolutely huge! Thomas spotted it. Glad he did, or I would have missed it….not sure how I would have missed him.

Better perspective with the people on the beach.

A little bit of Moline in Monterosso.

Another gelato stop. We average at least two a day.

After lunch in old town and another gelato stop, we decided to take the boat back to Vernazza. We actually just stopped in to clean up a bit and then opted to take the boat to Manarola and check out that town.

Passing by Corniglia.

There's Manarola! It's beautiful….which is why Rick Steves chose it for the cover of his Italy book.

Family shot on the boat!

Checking out the goods in Manarola.

At the bottom of the picture, you can see the kids in their red sweatshirts playing on the rocks.

Doing their best Ariel impersonation from The Little Mermaid.

It was getting late, and we needed to head back to Vernazza. We decided we would take the bus to a town north of the five cities and then hike from that town to Corniglia and then Corniglia to Vernazza (there were some closed trails due to rock slides, so this was really our only option.) Now, this was going to be about 2.5+ hrs of hiking, and it was already 4:20. At the bus stop, we met a couple from Maine who was skeptical about our plan. So we made the decision to do the quick 20 minute, easy trail to Riomaggiore recommended by Rick Steves and then boat back to Vernazza. The last boat to Vernazza was at 5:30. No problem! Plenty of time. As we start our hike, I see a trail sign for Riomaggiore, and I hastily take it. The first 10 sets of stairs were literally straight up. I should have known this was not the trail we needed. Oh did that sign say 1.0?? Is that 1km or 1 hr?? Either way, that should have been a HUGE hint. By this point, we only have an hour to catch that last boat. Darn you train strike!!!

As we were hiking up and over the massive hill/mountain/hellish landscape, we did see the stations of the cross. I think that was God's way of telling me it was going to be okay. However, that did not occur to me at the time.

Getting higher…..

Still higher…This altitude was accomplished by climbing muddy, rocky stones in the pouring rain. Remind me to never complain about climbing the Butte du Lion again. That is a piece of cake! Side note…Thomas was still wearing the wrong shoes.

We finally made it to the top, and it only took about 20 minutes to get up there. We were flying. With no rain and no time limit, this would have been a really cool hike, but under our circumstances it wasn't…..