I love everything about Luxembourg. My first great love of this place is the fact that my dear sweet wonderful beautiful companion, Berenice Delrue, lives here.
She’s AMAZING. I spent four months with her on the mission and she taught me what it truly means to follow the Spirit. She was like this European dream on the mission, her accent, her mannerisms, her beauty, and her Mary Poppins like nature. She’s practically perfect in every way. I hadn’t seen or talked to her for over ten years. Thank goodness for facebook we were able to reconnect and I got to spend three blissful nights with her and her wonderful boys (husband Aphy, 4 boys, Adam, Iliam, Yoann, Michealang).
Here are some more pics of the boys. I love the one of Yoann “meditating”. He’s hilarious. Although the boys already speak 2-3 languages, English is not one of them. But despite the language barrier we laughed and played the whole time we were there. Sure wish they weren’t so far away.
Berenice lives about 30 km North of Luxembourg City. We took a train to her small little village of Colmur-Berg, arriving at 11:30 PM. There she was waiting for us. I felt this overwhelming feeling of love and joy as we embraced. I couldn’t believe I was standing in front of one of the most influential people in my life. I felt so blessed to have the opportunity to be with her again and in such a magical place.
We got to her lovely home and were pleasantly surprised to find a beautifully big room with two twin beds and a bag full of chocolates. What??? Have I died and gone to heaven? We had just come from a sixteen bed dorm to this dream with an angel…
and chocolates.
We woke up to a wonderful breakfast of hot chocolate (the real stuff) and bread and jam. We were off to church in Luxembourg City and then Chloe and I were going to stick around and tour the city for the day. Berenice, the angel that she is, packed us a lunch full of wonderful goodies.
Church was wonderful and the men were beautiful. Too bad most of them were married. Anyway, the service was in French so we had a translator. The members treated us like gold. Seriously, I love being a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Instant best friends where ever you go.
After church Chloe and I walked around our fortress, because of course we were princesses for the day in our fairytale world with castles, Kings and Queens, and our very own charming (non-existent) prince. Following are some pics from our walk around the city.
We arrived home to a wonderful meal, cute little plum pies, and adorable boys to chase around the house. The perfect day.
Day 2 in Luxembourg (Monday Sept 21st) -
Castle Surfing
Remember as a kid dreaming of being a Knight or a Princess and having your own castle? Well today we went from castle to castle and saw visions of grandeur become reality. Sweet little Berenice was our chauffer for the day. Our first stop: Vianden, the only castle in Luxembourg that was restored to its original form. We got to take a little tour of the castle as well. Apparently, Victor Hugo spent some time there so we had to get a pic of his house.
Next stop the castle in the northern part of Luxembourg, Clervaux. Chloe and I hopped on a train and drove through the beautiful countryside of Luxembourg. We were a bit disappointed when we reached Clervaux because everything was closed. We took a few pictures and hopped back on the train about 30 minutes later.
Berenice met us back at the train station to take us to the other two Chateau’s. This time she brought her two youngest boys. We visited the castle in Esch-sur-sure and Chateau de Bourscheid. Both of these castles were in ruins. We chased the boys around the ruins, climbed towers, enjoyed spectacular views, threw rocks, and even spent some time meditating. Made me wish that my nieces and nephews also had castles 20 minutes away that they could play in.
I decided to climb beyond the gated fence to the highest point of the castle. When I was coming down from my perch the spires in the following picture went right up my pants and put a nice hole in them. It was worth it and Berenice quickly sewed them just like new.
After the castles we came home to yet another wonderful meal and yummy treats. We had FHE with the fam and Berenice showed pictures to the boys of the good ol’ mission days. Another perfect day in Luxembourg.
6 comments:
Heath,
I'm so excited to see pictures of you and Sister Delrue :) I'm sorry I wasn't paying closer attention to your blog and facebook so you could have sent my love to her too! She looks amazing as always and what a beautiful family! I'm glad you were a princess in all those castles. You deserve it......Prince charming will come :) Love ya,
Jami
That really does sound like a perfect couple of days. And those boys are beautiful! Remember the days when you took pictures on your trip and had to wait to get home to develop all the film and show the pictures! Thank goodness for technology. With this blog and Skype I feel like I'm part of the fun! I love you heather.
All that talk of food!! How do I get myself some of that? And fun to see pics of Sister Delrue. I've heard about her for years. She seems wonderful. She needs to come visit us here in Portland sometime. I always imagined her really short. Guess I was wrong. I love that we are getting blog updates as you go. Can't wait to hear about Kenya. Now the adventure really begins.
Hed, I think your "my sister Delrue." :) Your description of her is exactly how I feel about you.
What great memories you are making!
Sounds like you are having a marvelous time! Be safe and I can't wait to here about all of your adventures!
Your trip looks and sounds so awesome! And you look like a total babe! Thanks for sharing. :)
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