Kayaking Luxembourg/German border

I'm gearing up to paddle in the Great Valley regatta for the second time next month and I realized I never wrote anything on either of my two kayaking trips down the Sure river in Luxembourg.

This was one of the more fun things I did while in Luxembourg. It was my first trip out of the Capital, and I repeated it again in May just before I left. In Dillingen we rented kayaks from "Outdoor freizeit"  and paddled down the Sure River to the town of Echternach, Luxembourg's oldest city.

There aren't any rapids so it is just a leisurely paddle down the river.

August trip

Launching point

Everyone else getting into the water

May trip

Luxembourg Mountain Biking "The End"

It was almost two years ago now. Near the end of my time in Luxembourg, I was tipped off to some better Mountain bike trails, by a video on youtube. The youtuber was kind enough to give me directions on how to get to this not so hidden national mountain bike park, down in the iron rich, red hills of south east Luxembourg. Unfortunately the wet winter wasn't quite over with when I first started going. This bike park had a few miles of single and double track and some serious dirt jump and ladder dropps. I didn't take advantage of any of the DJ, but I did spend a few days riding around the single and double track. I don't think I ever saw another rider, outside of the DJ area.

DJ still wet in April

Nice and dry in May

Some of the locals put on a show for me.

Coordinates are +49° 29' 21.69", +6° 0' 26.94"

Easter in Mullerthal

Spent my Easter up in Mullerthal. Which is known as the Little Switzerland of Luxembourg. It is just my kind of place. Big rocks, little streams with waterfalls and lots of hiking trails. On Easter I dragged two of my roommates up there to take advantage of the great spring weather, and enjoy all the thing I just mentioned about it.
We started off at a little waterfall that is famous with tourist because of the cute bridge over it and because it is on the side of the road. The parking lot for the falls, despite being next to the road is about a quarter mile away. So we took the nice little trail following the creek to the falls, rather than walk along the road like many of the tourist. Upon reaching the falls we looked to see if it was deep enough to swim, or at least get wet from head to toe. It was, about 3 to 4 feet in the deeper holes. This was perfect depth for jumping off the 8 foot tall rock below the falls. The water was very cold but we still managed a few jumps and some splashing around, much to the surprise of everyone else who was there to see the waterfall.
After that we headed to this other really cool place. There are a bunch of rocks between 10 and 60 feet tall with slots between them. The place reminds me of one of my favorite places back home called "rock city"..The rocks are like sky scrappers surrounding the slots that are like streets. We climbed a few rocks and did some jumping along the "rooftops."
After we got a good feel for rock city we headed off looking for a place I'd seen pictures of on a map, but didn't really know where it was. It turns out that my natural ability to snoop out cool places was in over drive that day because I found it. Heading in the direction I thought it would be, I pulled over in a parking lot and headed for the trail. The trail had 4 branches leaving the parking lot. We took the right one and after a nice walk along a really small stream we reached these caverns and natural amphitheater.

Check out the pictures below.

Luxembourg Mountain bike take 2

Well I've been heading over to the Bambech trails a few times a week the last few week. Despite the rain we have been having. Unfortunately I haven't been able to convince anyone else to join me, but it has been all good. Found some trails that are narrow and steep, which is what I have been looking for. The mud from all the rain has also made it fun. Also, I just got a V.I.O. POV camera, which is why I waited until after a few trips to post this.

Going to these trails have given me a good chance to play with all my new toys. Been taking my new Garmin GPS to track my speed, distance, and altitude. And took the new camera out to get the videos below.

These trails are a blast, there is plenty of variety. Long leg burning uphills and some nice down hills. I've tried to kept my speed sub 30mph so far because I don't trust these $100 Mongoose bikes. I have only been riding a small corner so far, trying to learn it inside out and find any secrets it may be hiding. Also since I have been riding alone I don't want to wander off to far and run into trouble.

Enjoy the videos, more to come.

First Luxembourg Venture

This is my first experimental post so don't expect to much.

I was browsing the internet the other day and stumbled upon a youtube of a POV mountain bike video from Luxembourg. After a bit more research into the matter, I learned that the video was taken at some trails right outside the city. Which just so happened to be about a 10 minute ride away from my house.
The next morning a grabbed my roommate and headed out. As a bonus the ride there included a long steep street which we were able to hit speeds in the upper 30 mph rolling down. A short ride up the hill towards Bridel and we arrived at the Bambesch trails. We entered the trails and with no destination just started riding, picking turn offs as they came. There was a huge variety of trails, and we were lost in no time. After about two hours, when we finally hit the road we decided to call it quits for the day and follow the road back, knowing that we had to ride back up that hill that brought us down.
Not bad for the second time on a bike in a few years.

My roommate heading down one of the main trails

A little narrower trail surrounded by what looks like poison ivy

Map we used to get un-lost and head home