Kayaking In Dinant

This was our second visit to the Ardennes in Wallonia. This time we went to Dinant for some kayaking. Dinant is a cute town, but with the exception of kayaking, there is not much to do. I like the way they have the kayaking set up. There are two options, a 3-hour trip and a 6-hour trip. There is a train that departs a few times per day from a station just outside of Dinant. There are several outfitters to choose from and they all have parking. The train takes you to different starting points, depending on the length of your trip, and you kayak to the place where you left your car. We chose the 3-hour journey because we got a late start. We missed the early trains and had to wait until 2:45pm.

When we started out in the morning, the weather was great. We had a couple of hours before the next train departed so we toured the Citadel, the main tourist attraction. By the time we got on the river, the clouds moved in and it cooled off quite a bit. We were fine at first, but the temperature continued to drop and it rained for the last 30 minutes of the trip. Since we only had bathing suits on, we were pretty miserable for about the last hour. We warmed up with a cup of coffee and a warm shower at the take-out spot. We found out later that only a few places in Belgium got rain that day and that it was blazing hot in Brussels. Darn the luck!

Besides the weather, the kayaking was fun. There were only 3 rapids and they were not dangerous. The river moved quickly, so we didn't have to work too hard. It was definitely suitable for families. The hardcore river rat would probably be disappointed. We are planning to try again on a warm day. Now that we know the drill, we will get an earlier start so that we can take the 6-hour trip. This is all part of the learning curve involved with trying understand information in another language. much of the time it's just trial-and-error!

Funny Sign

We found this sign in Luxembourg. I think Brussels could use a few of these!

Biking In Luxembourg

More Luxembourg City Pictures

A Weekend In Luxembourg

Small in size—large in beauty is the best way I can describe Luxembourg. The country is only 85km from top to bottom and is even a shorter distance across. It is bordered by Belgium on the northwest, Germany on the east, and France on the south and has two official languages, French and German. Another language called Luxembourgish, a dialect of German, is also spoken regularly.

Luxembourg does not get the droves of tourists that other European cities do and I would bet that many people, especially Americans, could not locate it on a map. The only explanation for its anonymity that I can think of is its size. I have to admit that Luxembourg was not on the top of my travel list originally, but I heard good things about it and because it ‘s right next door to Belgium, it makes a nice weekend trip. Now that I have been there, I think it is probably a good thing that the country does not get a massive amount of tourists. It is very clean and full of natural beauty and it would be nice if it could stay that way.

We drove up on a Friday night after Rick got off work and stayed through Sunday. We tried to get accommodations at the last minute on a warm, sunny, spring weekend, so affordable places were scarce. We had been waiting for the weather to get warm enough to camp so we decided to go that route. We stayed at a campground in, Echternach, which is only 35km from Luxembourg City and a place well worth visiting itself. We opted for the partial camping experience. Rather than hanging out at the campsite, we used the campground exclusively for sleeping and showering. We ate all of our meals out and spent our days touring around. It was nice because we had the tent camping site all to ourselves. Most people were in campers, which were in a different section. What a great deal—privacy, clean showers, and waking up to a chorus of birds in the morning. All for only 15 EURO a night! The only bad part was putting up the tent in the dark on Friday night.

We went to Luxembourg City on Saturday. Much of the city is modern, except for the part known as the "Old Town". That is where we spent most of our time. The setting was magical. Built within a river valley and surrounded by steep canyons and gorges on all sides. Luxembourg was once one of the most heavily fortified cities in Europe and the Old Town still contains parts of the original bastions and ramparts. Walking along the ramparts gives one a spectacular view of the valley. Views from within the valley are equally good. There are several places to eat and drink within the valley. There is also a huge park. There is some sort of cable car that takes people up and down, but we walked. It was a pretty steep climb on the way out. We read that Luxembourg City has a great nightlife, but we opted for the solitude of our campsite.

It was difficult to choose an activity for day two because there were so many options: hiking, biking, kayaking, or visiting Vianden (a small town with an amazing castle). There was a huge network of well-marked bike trails, so we opted for biking through the countryside. We rented bikes in Luxembourg City and off we went. All bike trails offered easy access to train stations, so you could bike as far as you wanted and then take a train back to the starting point. There seemed to be a lot of serious bikers on the trail, but we just took it easy. It was hot and I didn’t have proper bike gear. I had to bike in jeans. I enjoyed the ride and the scenery, but I was a little uncomfortable. It was also very difficult for a gear-nerd like me to be dressed inappropriately for an outdoor activity. I truly envied all of the bikers that were decked out in their fancy outfits. Next time, I’ll be more prepared.