Friday - Vianden Castle and travelling

Today we left St Cyr L'ecole and put the address of Vianden Castle in the GPS. We were directed to take the main road along the south of Paris and gradually towards the north east through gently rollong hills and valleys till we got to the Ardennes in Belgium. There we had to think of the wars which were fought in that area, and wondered about the difficulties that would present in the difficult terrain, since it was very heavily wooded! Thankfully today the area is beautiful and peaceful, and we entered the country of Luxembourg, where everything is orderly and neat, and we travelled till we arrived at the beautiful valley where Vianden castle is situated high on a hill above the river and the village. We parked along the main street and walked along a narrow winding cobbled street, squishing ourselves against the walls of houses to get out of the way as cars made their way down the main street of Vianden. At the bottom of the hill we stopped to make photos of the beautiful scenery, and to visit the tourist bureau and ask for instructions on how to reach the castle. With the aid of a map we found the chair lift which took us across the valley; Steven and mum, Emily and Hanna, and dad by himself. It was a scary experience, over the river, over a road and up a steep mountain to the top. There we got off and an unpaved, steep, zig zaggy path allowed us to make our way to the beautiful Vianden castle, where dad used his excellent German to buy us some tickets. We proceeded to the gates of the castle and entered to explore this magnificent relic. Archeological discoveries show that it was built in about 360 AD and since then has been changed and added on to over the years. Models have been made of the various stages of progress, and family trees of people who lived there are displayed on the wall. A major work of restoration has been taking place over the last 40 years and the castle is truly wonderfully restored although even that work is not complete. William of Orange owned the castle in his days and lived there - there is a section called the Nassau wing - and we noticed quite a few Dutch people touring the castle.
We made many photos to help us keep this beautiful place in our memories, and then we had to move on to our final destination for the day - Hellenthal in Germany. Actually it was just on the border of Belgium and Germany, and to get there we had to follow many winding narrow roads through many tiny villages where each time our speed had to be reduced, which made life difficult for dad - our driver - but which we really enjoyed because we could see something of the scenery and see the houses of the locals. Once we had to drive slowly and our nostrils were filled with the earthy odours of farmlife - a farmer spraying fertilizer over the soil. Pooey!! Sometimes we got stuck behind tractors and dad had to use skill and dexterity to overtake these slow moving vehicles which of course he did with patience and cheerfulness!
Eventually we reached our destination - a lovely peaceful place called Ferienparadijs Heidehof. The owner was a Dutchman and his wife who lived in the back of a large farmhouse, and rented out apartments plus our separate little cottage. They also kept some ponies, some chooks, goats and pigs. He told us we could go out the back gate and find the marker stone which indicated the border between Germany and Belgium and he said we could stand with a foot in each country. Of course we went to have a look but couldn't find the stone - there were many stinging nettles around - so we just went for a walk in the beautiful forest and made some spectcular photos. When we got back dad had dinner almost ready and we sat down for our meal. We planned to get up early the next morning to go for a walk altogether in the forest - so we set the alarm for 6 am and went to bed.
From Mum