Ashlyn and DJ (DJ now goes by David, but he went by DJ at Furman :)) booked their tickets to come see us right when we told them we were moving to Amsterdam. So, we looked forward to their visit for a year!

Before they ventured to Amsterdam, Ashlyn and DJ visited Paris and Brussels — it was so nice they were already on European time. We chose to visit Luxembourg for the weekend because it is driving distance and none of us had ever been to Luxembourg!

Bryan and I left work a little early on Thursday, and started driving south! The first night we stayed in Maastricht, as it is a good half – way mark. Maastricht, a very cute town in in the South of the Netherlands, it a perfect weekend trip for us. We stayed in a castle near Maastricht in the fall!

On Friday morning, we woke up and went to a bakery for breakfast. A fun side note: Ashlyn ordered yoghurt and it was the largest yoghurt any of us had ever seen! Ha!

Luxembourg is a couple of hours from Maastricht and it is a beautiful drive. We drove even further south than Luxembourg City, because we planned a biking tour of the Moselle wine region for that afternoon! We ended up being a few minutes late, but it did not matter because John, the nicest tour guide of all time, waited for us with a smile.

The Moselle Wine Region of Luxembourg is spectacular — it is a “must – do” for anyone! I highly recommend exploring the area if you are near the region. Sunny but breezy, our wine tour day could not have been more gorgeous.

The electric bikes were fantastic because they allowed us to traverse the hilly vineyards with ease. I have to admit, my bike was in turbo the whole time 🙂 but I wanted a relaxing day.

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The neatest part of the day was hearing about the history of Luxembourg and the area during WWII. The background of the photos above is actually Germany! Did you know there is a part of Luxembourg were you can look into France and Germany? The three countries are separated by the river Rhine.

At the end of  our day biking around the vineyards, John introduced us to one of the wine makers of the region. His vineyard, Krier – Bisenius, is known for white wine. We loved the Auxerrois wine, which was his specialty and the late harvest wines. Ashlyn, Bryan, DJ, and I ended up tasting most of his wines! He prompted DJ and Bryan to start pouring their own wines and we were all sitting around the table laughing late into the evening. We never wanted to leave.

We finally made it into Luxembourg City for the evening and loved our time there. To me, it is the perfect mix of Paris and Zurich. Luxembourg City is quaint and gorgeous.

I recommend our dinner spot because it was delicious: restaurant Athena. The portions of greek food were enough to feed a small army! We absolutely loved it.

The next morning, we woke up and explored the city. Unfortunately, the famous caves of Luxembourg were closed, but we enjoyed looking around the outside and wandering through a Saturday market in the center of town.

On our way back to Amsterdam on Saturday afternoon, we stopped at the American WWII Cemetery outside of Luxembourg City. The cemetery was reverent and incredibly moving in a beautiful way.

5,076 US service members lie in this cemetery. Many of these soldiers died in the Battle of the Bulge advancing toward the Rhine river. The city of Luxembourg served as the headquarters for George S. Patton’s Army; Patton is buried in this cemetery as well.

When we made it back to Amsterdam, we went to our favorite brewery/ burger spot for dinner, Troost.

We loved having Ashlyn and DJ in Amsterdam and already planning a trip with them again next summer.

Until next time,

Hila