Swiss Luxembourg?

Here we are in the Müllerthal region of Luxembourg, which is called Little Switzerland. Actually, it's called Kleng Lëtzebuerger Schwäiz, in Letzeburgisch. I can kind of see why, because they have some hilly mountain-type features and some great geological events. It's not the Alps, though.

To the Northeast, the Müllerthal is bordered by the Sauer river and Germany. It took us about half an hour to drive here from Luxembourg City. It's pretty countryside, and we took a long hike today up along this ridgeline that runs parallel to the river. The rock formations were very pretty. We did some clambering around through tight spots and semi-caves. It was a beautiful day, we were enjoying the walk... and we really misjudged how far it was between towns.

Because it was way past noon and we were hungry, we decided to steal some apples. We passed by a few orchards on our walk, but they were all fairly well guarded. The one in the picture above had an electric fence around it (to be fair, it was a pasture) and a few other trees were behind thick hedgerows or barbed wire.

Finally, we found an unguarded tree - we thought - and picked a few nicely ripe Äpfel. They weren't without scabs, and they weren't ideal eating apples, but they hit the spot. A few paces down the lane, we saw that we had been watched. A man tending his roses gave us a withering, awful look and grunted as we passed. He wasn't too pleased about the American kids stealing his fruit.

A little further on, we found a few blackberries - barely a handful each - that had survived the end of fall and the other hikers. They were delicious and perfectly ripe.

When we got back to the town we're staying in (Bollendorf, really only a village), we crossed the river to get a bit of coffee. We didn't even think about the fact that we were crossing a border until we noticed the language difference on the signs. This is the view back across the river, from Germany, towards Luxembourg. The picture isn't great because the sun was going down right behind that hill, but it's all I have. The building in the forefront is a cafe and gas station. Beside every border crossing - so it seems - you'll find a gas station. Everyone knows that gas is really cheap in Luxembourg.