Ettelbruck, Erpeldange, and Diekirch by Bike!

As promised I have lots of pictures to share today.  I guess my planned hiatus isn't happening yet, which is a good thing.  By the time I get home I'll probably forget half of everything.  As I mentioned yesterday, today is a national holiday.  Therefore, we couldn't meet with anyone.  It was a perfect opportunity to see the area without the crowds and traffic and to rent some bikes from the hotel.  The rentals were free and thankfully we were able to find two Scott Timber mountain bikes that were in decent enough condition to take us around.

When I say decent, I mean the tubes were solid and the chain wasn't frozen with rust.  Mine (shown here) was slightly too small and after a four hour ride, my hands and knees aren't too pleased.  But, it was a wonderful opportunity to see the area by bike and to figure out how I will get around before we move here.  The first thing we did was ride to the town of Ettelbruck, which is a few minutes from where we are staying in Erpeldange.  One the way we passed the memorial to General George S. Patton, who liberated the town from the Nazis in 1944.  Incidentally, Patton is buried in Ettelbruck.  Apparently, he cared just as much for the town as the town did for him.

Ettelbruck is at the top of our list of places to live since it is large enough to have a shopping district, but close enough to the country to ride.  Plus, its far less congested than the capital.  Here is a shot of the city center in Ettelbruck:

There are no cars in the city center, but as you can see, bikes are welcome.

Notice the locking friendly design of the Lux bike racks!  Brilliant!

I took a panoramic shot of the city center too:





Normally this area was packed, but nothing was open today and from what we observed many people were in church.

While in Ettelbruck, we scoped out the rental properties we will be looking at starting tomorrow.  Most of them are located near the city center and one is located up an enormous hill.  But, the climb is worth it:

Our major concern is whether or not all these places allow pets.  Some are listed as allowing them, some do not.  That will be the deciding factor on which place we choose.  After checking all of these out, we found the Piste Cyclable (bike path) and pedaled to Diekirch, which was about 6mins away.  I cannot wait to commute here!  Check out this incredible route!

This, folks, is why we want to live outside the city!  We stopped in Diekirch for our lunch break, sandwiches and Ketchup Monster Munches.

After that, we went back a different way to locate the best route to the Cactus we visited last night.  On the way we passed the local bike shop.

Gotta appreciate the Schleck love!  Getting to the Cactus will be a piece of cake if we live in Ettelbruck, everything is accessible by bike.  I shouldn't have any trouble being car free here (unless we live in the house on the giant hill, ha!).  Of course, the real pleasure comes from the sights and sounds of the area.  No wonder this is such a bike loving country!

Tomorrow, we're looking at apartments all day and doing other move business, but by the weekend I'll have more glorious shots of Lux City and possibly a little in Germany too!