Week 53: Marksburg and Mid-Week Paris

We had a clear weekend to visit Marksburg castle, which we are only previously visited briefly a few weeks ago. This time we were careful to arrive in time for one of the English tours. The castle is particularly noted as being the only castle on the Middle Rhine to never be destroyed and was first built around 1117, making it just under 900 years old. The castle had many owners through its time, including Napoleon. 

The two most facinating things we found out about the castle, was that (1) it had an icebox--it was the first castle we had been to where such an item was part of the tour and (2) the head of the German castle authority gets to live here. For that reason, the tour was limited and did not include the tower, which was unfortunate, as that is generally the *best* part of any castle tour. Following the tour, we enjoyed some coffee and cake, to help blend in with the German crowd.

Marksburg

The following week, some friends of ours from the US were spending a few days in Paris as part of a post-med-school graduation celebration European trip for one of the couple. Jason and I looked up the TGV times and hopped on a 6:40am train from Luxembourg and were at our friends' hotel by 9:30. That is about 2 hours to travel 230 miles, with some metro transit on the other end to complete the trip. Average speed of 115 mph? Yes, please.

This was the graduate's first trip to Paris and since we had been before, we let them lead the way. We attempted to go to the Catacombs, but they were closed due to V-E Day, so we had a nice walk from there to Notre Dame. After a wander through the inside of the church, we went up the towers to visit the gargoyles, as well as get a rather nice view of the city. This was a first for both Jason and I, and, despite the wait, was totally worth it. Plus, you get to see the bell, which is enormous.

The gargoyles overlook Paris

We next took the Metro up to the area of Montmartre and visited the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris. This is another place to get a great view of the city. While we were sitting and enjoying the view and determining our next destination, the graduate's name was called out--and here, in Paris, 5000+ miles away from school, he runs into one of his classmates. Crazy.

Our next stop was for a cafe (shown in the photo below), then a quick run by the Moulin Rouge for a photo from the front. Instead of a fancy dinner, we decided to grab some cheese, bread and wine for a dinner by the Seine. The weather, which was supposed to be rain, held out for the day and we had a fantastic time by the water eating, drinking and chatting. Of course, since the summer is coming, the days are getting longer, and as we said good-bye around 8pm to catch our train back to Luxembourg it wasn't even dusk yet. 

The guy walking out of the cafe...not part of our group

With that, we had our 2 hour train ride and then our drive home--a great day and definitely worth the time off from work.