Today we say goodbye to Schloss Lieser and make our way to Bastogne, via Luxembourg. Our hotel was elegant, and the staff made us feel at home. I won't miss having to climb that spiral staircase just to use the bathroom, though.
As a reminder, any links in blue will open in a new window. You won't lose your place here. Clicking on a photo will display a larger version of it.
Our taxi would pick us up at 9:15 am, so we set our alarm early enough to enjoy a cup of coffee and take our time with last-minute packing. We spent four nights here at Schloss Lieser, but the next three nights would all be in different hotels. Flashbacks of our Globus trip to Italy? Definitely! We booked a regional train from Wittlich to Luxembourg, then a "FlixBus" from Luxembourg to Bastogne. Because there are only two buses to Bastogne, we built in plenty of transfer time in Luxembourg to ensure we'd make at least one of them.
Until next time...
photo by Cindy Newman
En route to Luxembourg
Several months before we left, I booked a private tour of the Bastogne area with a local historian. He would cover all of the significant locations as they related to World War II's Battle of the Bulge. He would pick us up in his car on the morning of Day 6 and provide a four-hour tour. Our plan for when we arrived in Bastogne was to check in to our hotel, then tour the museums in Bastogne, including the Bois Jacques area.
I read the book Band of Brothers long before it became a hit mini-series. Once I realized just how close Bastogne was, relatively speaking, to our starting point in Lieser, I knew we'd have to visit such a historically significant place. Cindy and I watched the mini-series about two weeks before we left, and the episodes detailing Easy Company's time in Bastogne and Foy, and hence Bois Jacques amped our excitement of visiting such a storied location. We would quite literally be walking in their footsteps! Our tour guide wouldn't cover this area, since it was accessible with tickets from the Bastogne War Museum. We only had so much time that afternoon, but we'd make the best of it.
Our train got into Luxembourg right on time, and we asked the travel center how to get to the FlixBus stop. The agent was quite helpful, and wrote out exactly what bus to take to get there. We had enough time for a quick snack at a local coffee house before going to the bus stop. We purchased "Panorama View" seats, which were on the upper deck of the bus. This is gonna be a cool ride into Bastogne!
A bus with the proper number approached our stop, but....it didn't look right. It wasn't the big, green double-deck bus we were expecting. We showed our directions the agent wrote out for us to another person standing at the bus stop with us. "Yes, this is the bus on that paper." We boarded the bus, but we still weren't sure we were where we needed to be.
Well....yes and no.
After three stops, the bus pulled into this large parking lot that had the FlixBuses there.
Except our bus.
That we missed by about 10 minutes.
Crap!
That's when we realized that the agent gave us the exact directions we needed, but we didn't realize it was to catch a local bus to the long-distance bus stop. The good news was we'd still be able to catch the second bus to Bastogne. The bad news? We had a two-hour wait in the parking lot.
Our plan to tour the Bastogne museums in the afternoon was effectively hosed.
Now what?
We had two hours of waiting.
Well, we are in Luxembourg. I wonder if there are any geocaches nearby. Lemme take a quick look on the app. Hey, cool, there's one just 190 feet away. Cindy would watch our bags while I "went for the smiley." I had to be a bit stealthy but we were old hands at that. A little searching annnd...found it! Hello, GC9YMKE. Pleased to see you. Add Luxembourg to the list of countries Team Lefty Writer has found a cache in. Making a glass of lemonade out of the lemon we had.
The FlixBus arrived on time and we ensured it was the correct bus. No more assuming on our part. And yes, the "Panorama View" seats are nice! We'll get into Bastogne a little before 6 pm. Cindy and I discussed asking our tour guide if he'd consider taking us through Bois Jacques, since we probably wouldn't have time after his tour. We had to get to Luxembourg later that afternoon.
As we got closer to Bastogne, I started looking at the surrounding terrain, trying to visualize what it must have looked like in late 1944/early 1945. The rolling terrain and forests added more than just a map view could. Overall, it was just a bit over an hour from Luxembourg to Bastogne, but the anticipation of getting there made it feel longer.
"Are we there yet?"
From research, I knew that we followed the general path of Patton's 3rd Army as it made its way north to Bastogne.
The bus stop was a short two-minute walk from our hotel, literally "right around the corner." Let's get checked in, drop our bags and go get some dinner. I know just the place: Le Nut's
And yes, as you've probably guessed, our pre-trip research led us to this little gem. Thank you, Google. You were most helpful in finding everything we needed.
Cool menu!
A burger and a beer? Sounds good to me! Especially if the beer is a locally brewed product. Our snack in Luxembourg held us for a while, but hey, both of us were ready for dinner.
Beer out of a helmet?
While that helmet was "cute" and fit the backstory of the beer, it wasn't the most efficient way to drink the beer. I embraced the moment, though, and didn't ask for a regular glass. One thing we discovered when we got there was Le Nut's is cash only. We had plenty of Euros with us, so it wasn't an issue. If you go there, remember to take enough cash to cover your meal.
We enjoyed our meal outside since the weather was so pleasant. I did want to see the inside, though, as there were tons of historic photos on the wall.
Did you notice in one of the photos that I'm holding a 101st patch next to one of the pictures? There's a very specific reason for that, but you'll have to wait until the next blog for the full story. And it's not the obvious reason of the 101st being in Bastogne.
What's better than eating at an iconic restaurant in Bastogne? Finding a nearby geocache after eating at an iconic restaurant in Bastogne! It was only a few hours ago that we found our first Luxembourg cache, and now we can add Belgium to our list. Boo-yah!
Sherman tank
Yes, there's a geocache hidden somewhere on the tank. I'm not going to reveal any spoilers, though. You'll just have to find it for yourself. Note that I captioned one of the photos as "disabling shot." From research, the crew survived this shot, but the tank was disabled.
With a wonderful meal completed, Cindy and I walked around the square and explored this part of Bastogne. With our tour tomorrow, we don't know how much time we'll have to just....explore.
Wait a minute....what about dessert? I bet we can find something tasty here.
And we did!
Apple tarte tatin
Cindy and I split this delicious apple tarte tatin with chantilly cream and vanilla bean ice cream. It wasn't very busy, and the wait staff asked about our plans while we were here and encouraged us to return for dinner the following night. "We wish we could, but we'll be in Luxembourg tomorrow night."
I think a nightcap is in order. Tomorrow will be a busy day and our time in Bastogne will be done. Let's see what the hotel bar has to offer.
I've written before about how much I enjoy a good gin like Tanqueray or Bombay Sapphire. At the hotel bar, this local gin caught my eye. If you've read the previous installments of our trip blog, you'll remember how much we enjoyed the locally produced wines. And now I can try a locally made gin? Hell yeah!
Wow! This gin was smooooth! No "Pine Sol" taste, either. Please click on the photo of the menu so you can read the description of this gin. This could easily unseat Bombay Sapphire as my favorite.
Time to call it a day. Tomorrow will be a full day and we need to be up by 7 so we can take advantage of the included breakfast and meet our guide by 9.
Minimum steps: 7161
3.14 miles ("Pi miles?")
Coming up next, our day in Bastogne.
You can find all of the previous installments of this series by clicking on the title below:
Until next time....
carpe cerevisi
