Oh! What a country is Luxombourg!!! Good to be living in this country albeit for a very temporary period. Idyllic, serene, picturesque---any number of epithets are just insufficient. Time seems to have frozen in the medieval times. It was a fantastic day when my Luxumbourg friends took me on a “Castle Tour of the North”. We visited 3 castles, Bourscheid, Clervaux and Vienden. The castles were typical European castles. About the castles a little later. The trip to the castles is what I am going to blog first. What a landscape!!! My friend remarked that the meadows and the hill sides were green during August exceptionally and this year was one of those. Such lush green, I have seen only on the hills of India. But the huge meadows, they are typical of Europe. The cows and oxen grazing them reminded one of Switzerland. The weather was perfect today – sunny, cool and a very clear day. The roads are very good and the hairpin bends and the slopes of the hills were very thrilling. There was no dust. That makes these meadows and the houses look as if they all had a water wash just then.
Of the three palaces, the Clervaux palace houses a photo museum “The Family of Man” by Edward Steichen of Luxumbourg who was with the Photographic Museum of Newyork. The collection is stupendous. All are black and white photograph of the fifties and earlier but the effect and the presentation are touching the inner depths of the mind. There are beautiful quotes like that of Anne Frank (14 year old girl) saying “ I believe that all men are inherently good”. This is the zenith of faith. The joys, sorrows, anxieties, concerns, the strains, the warmth, the love and every expression coming out of the photos were quite touching. There was another quote which went like this, “There is one type of man and it is called All Men, there is one type of woman, and it is called All Women and there is one type of child and it is called All Children”. If only humanity starts believing in this, Heaven will descend on Earth and Gods will come down here. Some one correctly said that the biggest enemy of global piece is Patriotism. When do we believe in Human Beings rather than on Americans, Indian, European etc going down to language, caste, creed, sect etc. Anybody visiting Europe should make a sojourn to this place.
There was a Medieval festival going on in Vianden castle and we could see artistes from all over Europe. It was like a mela in an Indian village. Games, eateries, ancient dresses, the armoury, all were present. There is a beautiful church in Vianden and it is quite big too. The rope car which took us to the top and the slope down to the castle were very nice. In all it was a day well-spent.