This s ection o f the Fe ls enweg 1 was a h igh l igh t.

Hiking in Luxembourg: An Overviewmonkeysandmountains.com /hiking- in- luxembourg

When you think of places to hike, Luxembourg is likely not the f irst place that comes to mind.

It wasn’t for me at least. But that was before I spent three glorious days hiking in Luxembourg. And before I learned thatthere are 23 trails in the newly created NaturWanderPark delux for a total of over 400km of hiking trails.

The NaturWander park delux is a joint initiative between Luxembourg and Germany that offers borderless hiking. Thetrails weave back and forth between the two countries so instead of a two-peak day, you can have a two-country hikingday! Coming from Canada, this is all rather impressive!

Ispentonlythreedayshiking,buteasilycouldhaveeasilyspentaweek

exploring more. Luxembourg offers up surprisingly diverse hiking for such a small country.

I spent two days hiking parts of the Felsenweg 1 and Felsenweg 2 ( Rock Way), in the southern part of Luxembourg.Several hundred years ago the Dutch referred to it as the Little Switzerland of Luxembourg and the name has stuck eversince.

This part

Hiking a long the creek on Fe ls enweg 2 was one o f the h igh l igh ts .

This partof

Luxembourg is known for its craggy sandstone cliffs and out of this world rock formations. Moss covered rocks andhovering trees give it a magical appearance that reminds me of a Lord of the Rings movie set. And just like in themovie, on the Felsenweg you never know what could jump out right in front of you. The sandstone cliffs house manycaves that were used by the Romans for shelter and as hideouts during WWII. There are four Felsenwegs each between

Vianden Cas tle was one s top a long our h ike in the Ardennes .

20 -30km in length. Parts of the Felsenwegs combine to make the Mullerthal Trail, a 110km trail through sandstone cliffs,forests, farmland and valleys.

I alsohikedtheNat-OurRoute5

(Vianden-Falkenstein) in the Ardennes, in central Luxembourg. This 12km trail comprised of tree covered rolling hillsinvolves lots of ups and downs but views over the Our (pronounced Ur) river valley along the way. The Ardennes aredevoid of the sandstone cliffs found in the southern part of Luxembourg, but offer their own unique gems along the way. Like Vianden Castle, Luxembourg’s most famous castle. Then yet another castle. Unfortunately this one was private sowe couldn’t enter. But not to worry, Vianden, a charming medieval village is waiting as a reward and there are severalcafes that offer great views of the Our River.

I had

Löctges berg was one o f m y favor i te par ts o f h iking in the Ardennes .

I had

started my hiking trip thinking that Luxembourg would only offer easy hiking. I was wrong. While there are plenty of easyhikes, there are also more challenging multi- day hikes. And all of that up and down adds up. On some trails you gaincollectively almost 1000m of elevation gain and 30km of distance - in one day!

Stay tuned for more posts about hiking in Luxembourg where I will provide the highlights and tips for each of the routesthat I did. In the meantime check out NaturWander Park delux for further info.

Thank you to the Luxembourg National Tourist Board for making my visit possible. As always, all opinions expressedare my own.