Tuesday 5 August 2014
| Distance (km) | 12 kms | |||
| Distance (time) | 3 hrs | |||
| Climb / Descent | 138m / 316m | |||
| Hard / Soft surface | 45% / 55% | |||
| Landscape |
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| Weather |
 24° 3 Bft
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Sometimes it just doesn't go the way it was planned. The plan was good: on Saturday 2 August we drive early in the morning to Ettelbruck and from there we take the train and bus to Leithum to continue walking the GR5. But that is not the way it went, because on Friday we received the message that the coffee bean grinder for Lupita's coffee roasting company had finally arrived and was ready to be picked up. Since we couldn't do that on Friday anymore and we didn't want to leave it for 3 weeks in the storage it had to be done on Saturday morning. The only advantage would be that we would have more time to gather our stuff, because we were not going to walk on Saturday anymore. And since the bus to Leithum doesn't go on Sundays there was no need to get up early on Sunday because we were not going to walk that day either. Actually, it's getting pretty relaxed. So on Sunday at ease we go to Ettelbruck to start walking on Monday. Well....no. On Monday it's really bucketing down and one wouldn't even dare to send the dog out. So...postponed to Tuesday.
The number of buses to Leithum is limited to a few in the early morning and then again starting from 13:15. Since we still have to pack a tent, park a car and take the train to Troisvierges we opt for the 13:15 bus leaving Troisvierges. So again a relaxed and fortunately also sunny morning. We grumble a bit about te camping site in Ettelbruck where apparently one can only pay cash (what century are we in again?) and it's 52 euros (ouch) for 2 nights, which is quite a gap in our 200 euro cash budget that we were plan to carry around. We park the car on the large free parking area in the downtown and the train is on time and so is the bus and so we are 14:10 in Leithum. The usual check on the shoes and off we go. We just have to get up the little hill to the border where we left the GR5 last Ascension Day week and we're back on the GR5. The track slowly descends into the valley of the Our river. Most of it through the forest, but on the way we cross a large meadow that brings Lupita in a spontaneous Sound-of-Music mode. The last part to the village of Ouren is pretty steep and we walk straight into the village. At hotel Rittersprung we have a short stop for a croque monsieur and when we want to pay we find out that again we can only pay cash. Completely ridiculous for a hotel and if it stays like this we won't get very far with the cash money we have. We leave Ouren again and head for the Europe monument that is not very exciting. We say goodbye to the last GR5 sign in Belgium and we now have to start following yellow circles on blue signs: the Our trail. And as the name says...we walk along the Our. First on tarmac passing a holiday camp and a large picknick area, then soft track. It's rather flat and walking goes fine and so at half past 5 we're in Tintesmillen. There is still a lot of space on the camping site so we register and we could have seen it coming: we can only pay cash. Hello, 21st century? Luxemburg...famous for banking? We plump down on the grass and Lupita decides to get us an ice cream. The neighbour of 2 tents further passes by with a large wok pan full of pasta bolognese telling me they made way to much food and he hopes we're hungry. Well, how can we refuse? So with an ice cream in one hand and a fork with pasta in the other it becomes a different kind of meal, but for sure an easy one... |
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Download track LeiTin.gpx