Saturday, Oct 7th-Monday, Oct 9th
After a tough week of work, we were very excited that our vacation with Steph and Pete was about to begin. We woke up on Saturday, went out for our respective runs and by 10:30am Ag and I were on the road heading to Amsterdam to pick up our pals. We arrived around 3:00pm, parked and checked into our hotel. Pete and Steph’s flight landed at 4:20pm, so we figured we had plenty of time to figure out how to get to the airport. Our hotel manager informed that there was a bus, which stopped about 3 blocks away, that would take us directly to the airport. “But,” he said, “You better hurry because it comes in 5 minutes and the next one doesn’t leave until 4:30pm.” The next thing we knew, we were literally sprinting about to the city center to catch the bus. It was like an episode of “Amazing Race.” Luckily, we made it to the stop just as the bus was pulling up.
When we got to the airport, we found out their flight was a bit delayed so we had a sandwich and beer to pass the time. After awhile, they showed up carrying only two normal size backpacks and a pretty small suitcase (one that you could definitely carry on to a plane). “Well, let’s go get your stuff,” I said. Lo and behold, that was all they brought! I couldn’t believe it. Talk about awesome packers! This little detail turned out to be one of the most critical occurrences of the trip, as you will read in the next couple of blogs. So, we headed toward the bus stop and arrived to discover that we had just missed the bus back to the city center. The next one wasn’t for another hour, so we had a beer and chatted as we waited.
Eventually we got to our hotel and we were out in the city exploring by 7:00pm. A few bars later, we were in a Mexican restaurant sipping on margaritas and eating a delicious meal. We went to a few other places and then walked through the Red Light district with all the other tourists. The area was booming to say the least. After that we headed back toward our hotel but not before we stopped for a piece of pizza and ice cream!
When we got back to our hotel we all made the “climb” to our room. Honestly, the steps were so steep it was like climbing a ladder. Plus our quad room was on the 4th floor!
After a breakfast of breads and spreads, we headed back to Luxembourg. We got home around 3:00pm and just chilled. We had some tasty wine and cheese, Wheat Thins (Steph brought some for us!), beer, etc. Later we ordered Indian food and our Irish friends Robbie and Laura came over to hang out as well. We watched the NFL games and had a great, great night.
The next day we drove to Trier, Germany and went to my favorite restaurant for their breakfast buffet. As always, it was delicious! After breakfast we shopped around and walked through the Roman Gardens. Also in the city center, there are two huge Catholic churches built right next to each other. The architecture in both churches are extremely different and unique. One church is Gothic and the other is Roman architecture.
After Trier we headed into Luxembourg Centre Ville (the city center). We parked in the Grund area, walked up to the city center and strolled around, did some shopping, etc. It was a beautiful day so as we walked we took some great pictures of the city. On our way home, we went to the grocery store and picked some things up for dinner.
When we got home, Agnes and I were really itching to get out and run a little. We planned to do the Amsterdam half marathon the next weekend (right after Pete and Steph were due to leave), and we knew we wouldn’t get a chance to run for the rest of the week. So while Ag and I went for jogs, Steph and Pete made dinner! Nothing like making your guests feel welcome, huh?!
After dinner that night we just packed and organized our things….ready for our Italy tour to begin!
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