Side Trips

A Side Trip To Mondorf-Les-Bains

16km (10 miles) SE of Luxembourg City

Luxembourg's only casino and a widely recognized health club are in this spa town. Buses depart every hour from Luxembourg City. By car, take N3 south, and turn east at Frisange.

Touring the Valley of the Seven Castles

It's really just the valley of the Eisch River, but that doesn't have the same panache as "Valley of the Seven Castles," which is what the Luxembourg tourist literature calls it. This scenic little area holds one of Europe's finest concentrations of castles.

Steinfort (Stengefort), 16km (10 miles) northwest of Luxembourg City on N4, is the entry point to the valley. Thereafter your route is northeast to Koerich (Käerch), and its ruined medieval castle. As you follow the course of the river (which is really no more than a stream), next up is Septfontaines (Simmer), a high-sited village dominated by its ruined 13th-century castle. Below the castle are the seven springs (sept fontaines) that give the village its name.

From here the valley road turns east to Ansembourg (Aansebuerg), which has two castles, a 12th-century one with later modifications high on a hill, and a 17th-century one in the valley. A little way north is Hollenfels (Huelmes), with an 18th-century castle constructed around a 13th-century keep dramatically situated on a cliff top (it's now a youth hostel). From there you go northeast on a minor road to the castle at Schoenfels (Schëndels).

Go north now, to Mersch (Miersch), the geographical center of the Grand Duchy. In addition to the early feudal Pettingen Castle, you find here the remains of a Roman villa that exhibits mosaics, sculpture, and wall paintings.

The crow's-flight distance from Steinfort to Marsch is just 16km (10 miles), but the winding nature of even the most direct roads will about triple that distance on the ground.