Vianden Castle in Luxembourg... WOW!

If it's one thing I love...it's a great castle! This one is definitely in my top 10 list of Fantastic European Castles. This is Vianden Castle in Vianden, Luxembourg. You might have seen Vianden Castle aready, without even realizing it. She's quite famous. She has been featured in several movies, such as Georges and the Dragon, with Patrick Swayze, Shadow of the Vampire, with John Malkovich, and Sherlock Holmes, with Morgan Fairchild and Christopher Lee. Doesn't this tower look like the one that Repunzel lived in? If so, she had some seriously long hair. I'm just saying. Vianden Castle was built between the 11th and 14th centuries. Like most castles of this time frame, each inhabitant made it just a little bit bigger. Until the 15th century, it was home to the counts of Vianden, who were related to both the Royal Family of France, and the German Imperial court. This is the Arms Hall. Another view of the Arms Hall.This is a set of chainmail from Arezzo, Italy. It was made in the 14th century, and is extremely heavy. This is the view from the Lower Chapel, looking up into the upper one.The castle overlooks the town of Vianden in the valley below.The inner courtyard and surrounding rooms were heavily damaged by lightening in 1667, but were later repaired.The Byzantine Gallery was one of my favorite rooms. Just imagine having lunch here on a sunny summer afternoon. It was a little bit chilly today, but just as beautiful.The Upper Chapel was dedicated to St. Anthony, and was the first church of Vianden. Before that, the closest church was the Basilica of Roth, Germany. The chapel is in a ten-sided tower of the castle. The castle bedroom was very pretty. Here is a peek into the Grand Kitchen. It's a little known fact that flat screen tv's were quite common in castles. Obviously only the Royals could afford them, but they came in quite handy for keeping the kitchen staff entertained while preparing those enormous royal feasts.Just up the stairs from the kitchen, is the Dining Hall. This is the large cellar. It is currently used as a dining hall during the Medieval Festival. Sadly, we had to bid good-bye to beautiful Vianden Castle and head toward home. We just had to take one more look back at her before we left the valley. She is breath taking, isn't she? When I win the lottery, I'm building myself a castle. If you are very, very nice, I'll let you come and visit me. I'd better start researching. I need to buy some property on top of a mountain in Texas...

Thursday At Daleiden, Bastogne, And The Ardennes

Thursday was the last day of our adventure, so we decided to check out some memorials to WWII. First stop was Daleiden, Germany, which is one of the largest war graves in Rhineland Palatinate. It's near the Luxembourg border. A total of 3224 soldiers who died in the Battle of the Bulge are buried there, in circles surrounding the monument.This is the main entrance to the monument. This statute was in the center of the monument. It's located on top of a hill, just outside of town, and the view was very peaceful and beautiful. You walk through this small room to enter the monument, and on the walls are plaques with the names of the soldiers who are buried there. Leaving Daleiden, Germany, we headed through northern Luxembourg and into Belgium. We've been wanting to see Bastogne since we first moved to Belgium, and this was out chance. Even the rainy day didn't take away from how impressive the Memorial du Mardassan is. It's a monument to all of the American soldiers who died fighting in the Battle of the Bulge, and was inaugurated in 1950. The monument is 36 feet tall, 93 feet wide, and is in the shape of a five pointed star, found on a military uniform. The names of the 48 states are displayed in bronze around the top inside and outside of the monument. 76,809 soldiers were killed or wounded in the Battle of the Bulge. The story of the Battle of the Bulge is engraved on the walls of the Memorial, starting with the words "The Battle began with fog and darkness..." The central atrium is 60 feet wide. This is the view from the top of the Monument, back toward the city of Bastogne. There is also a museum on the grounds called the Bastogne Historical Center. They didn't allow pictures to be taken inside, but you can check out their link if you are interested. After leaving Bastogne, we meandered our way through the Ardennes forest to the town of La Roch-en-Ardenne to visit the Battle of the Bulge Museum there. Brandon was our tour guide on this leg of the journey, because he visited this museum on his week long school trip earlier this year. The museum was very interesting, and was much larger than it appeared from the outside. It was three stories full of vehicles, artillery, pictures and personal things found on the battle field after the Battle of the Bulge. This picture shows the town of La Roch-en-Ardenne before the war...

And after.

The museum was very interesting, but it was getting late, so we finally decided to end our adventure and head for home. I think that we managed to squeeze a lot of history, intrigue, and exercise into 4 short days. Now we need to catch up on some much needed sleep. Or not. The adventure isn't over yet...