Buergbrennen and Fort Thüngen {Feb 21-22}

 

Buergbrennen

On Saturday, February 21, after our trip up to the Chateau de Vianden, we joined our friends Russ & Star for a “Buergbrennen” celebration in Tétange (the very south end of Luxembourg). This Luxembourgish holiday symbolizes the burning away of winter, and I was really crossing my fingers that it would work. The celebration in Tétange has a medieval flare to it, with booths set up beforehand selling food and knight costumes and swords. There were also knights and their knight-horses perusing the grounds. After eating, we bought the kids torches (sounds safe, right?) and followed the people carrying their flaming torches on a procession through the city, and back to the biggest bonfire I had ever seen. The boys did relatively well with their torches, although there were  a couple of near-misses with long-haired people in front of us (sorry Star). The boy scouts would have been impressed by the bonfire. 3 stories high made of full-size logs, with dead Christmas trees thrown on for fun. The flames went up at least twice as tall as the structure. We were too far away to see for sure how they lit it, but there were flames of some sort flying through the air onto the fire. Warning: pics are pretty bad. It was dark. I didn’t have my “real” camera.

     

Fort Thüngen

Sunday afternoon, we met the Oates at Fort Thüngen for a Sunday walk (and to get the kids’ energy out). We hadn’t been there before, but it’s not too far from our house, and the kids had a great time running around on the grass (and mud), climbing stairs and walls, and exploring the underground tunnels. Fort Thüngen is part of the old fortress, most of which was torn down. And it turns out that sunshine makes me happy. And friends.

         

Vianden Castle {February 21}

We took advantage of a free Saturday to go up to Vianden castle in the northern part of Luxembourg. The outside of the castle was amazing – right on the top of a hill with a beautiful valley down below. We parked and hiked up the hill to the castle, then walked through the inside. The boys thought the knights and treasure chest were pretty cool, but all Eliza wanted to do was walk and crawl through the castle, and touch things she wasn’t supposed to. She did well at first, but we hurried through the last part to avoid a meltdown. One of my favorite parts was the well – it had a grate on top but you could look down and see where they pulled the water from.

      

 

After exploring the inside of the castle, we walked back down the hill, had a picnic lunch, and explored the town a little before heading home.

Our Life in Luxembourg: Month 3 {January 16-February 15}

Highlights of Month 3 in Luxembourg:

Day trip to Strasbourg, France for some Stake Priesthood meetings.

Our sea shipment arrived! We were so excited to have all of our own stuff. For a few days. Then I felt like we had so. much. stuff. Even though we had purged quite a bit through the moving process to minimize what we brought, after living for 2 months with rental furniture and minimal belongings, it felt like a lot of random things to find spots for. Still, it was especially nice to have our own bed and a fully stocked kitchen. We enjoyed watching the movers unloading everything into the apartment with their fancy elevator machine, and trying to find the best way to fit our queen sized mattress and box springs upstairs (and almost breaking a chandelier in the process). Fortunately, everything arrived (although it took me about a month to find a few things that had been packed in random places) with minimal damage. Our favorite finds were 1) the empty chocolate milk container and tape rolls that were packed along with other garbage in the box our TV was packed in, 2) empty jars of salsa that had been sitting on our counter in Seattle ready to be recycled, and 3) the toaster oven and microwave that had both broken within a couple weeks of moving, both with “do not move” stickers still on them.

Another round of sicknesses (including high fevers) going through the whole family. Nate worked from home one day and Eliza thought his lap was the perfect place to hang out.

Having the Oates and Andrewses (who had just arrived in Luxembourg) over for Sunday dinner amidst piles of boxes and random stuff everywhere (2 days after our stuff arrived).

Depressing weather forecasts. Everyone told us that Luxembourg weather was similar to Seattle but a little colder and it snowed a couple inches here and there. Maybe we had a mild winter in Seattle last year, so this wasn’t that different from a “normal” Seattle winter, but I felt like it was always FREEZING cold outside, and there was always snow in the forecast!

 

First Luxembourg girls’ night, with Tasha and Star. It was great to chat about Luxembourg and share tips and ideas without kids interrupting. I don’t know if I would survive living here without these girls!

Ice skating at Place Guillaume II.  We made it just before they closed for the season and the boys LOVED it!  Bennett and Ryan both started out using the trainers (the metal thing and the orange seal) to help them keep their balance.  Then we took turns pushing Ryan around on the seal while Bennett ventured around on his own.  He’s a pretty quick study!  By the end, all three boys were skating without (much) help. 

  

 

Visiting the bus museum with the Oates.

   

Braving the cold so we could get out of the house – riding bikes at the park, and a Saturday at the airplane park and American Cemetery.

Carnival – The kids celebrated Carnaval at school, so we threw together some last-minute costumes for them. Little fireman and detective.

Valentine’s Day Pancakes, and Valentine’s Day Date – we celebrated Valentine’s day with our first Luxembourgish date night. We traded babysitting with the Oates, and enjoyed a nice dinner at a Thai restaurant and walk around the Grund and downtown. We finished off the evening with Snickers ice cream bars from the gas station down the street. Can’t get more romantic than that!