Walking with friends

Head for the hills! Luxembourg too has dizzying ridge walks, spectacular cliffs, lush meadows, whispering forests and upland plateaus. The 52-kilometre-long Lee Trail in the north of the country is the first section of the long-distance Escapardenne Trail which crosses the border into Belgium. Three friends explored it together.

The three friends are keen hikers and love being outdoors. Alfonso Salgueiro, 49, is a freelance photographer who has been living in Luxembourg since 2001. Josh Dauphinee from Canada, 38, is doing the Lee Trail today for the first time. Ciarán Mackin, 36, from Ireland, is looking forward to getting to know the Lee Trail, which can be quite adventurous in places, with his friends. “We’ll see if I’m fit enough,” says Ciarán.

From Hoscheid to Kautenbach, it’s just 15 km. There’s a special highlight here for children and the young at heart: the “Klangwee”, a themed sound trail with 17 different stopping points. It begins in the centre of the village. Some of the objects can be played with sticks, whether borrowed or improvised out of pieces of wood. Josh and Ciarán have great fun at the very first stop: if you hit the flat metal shape hard, it makes all kinds of crazy sounds – electronically. It even plays a German hiking song, which is very appropriate. There are also some more contemplative sound games, such as an impressive wooden structure, at the top end of which a wind chime moves gently. It’s very meditative. You also see families with children here, because you can walk the 6 km Klangwee separately from the Lee Trail. 

Alfonso, Josh and Ciarán leave the instruments behind and the Lee Trail takes them on through the Schlinder valley. Here they find St Michael’s chapel, which has an air of romantic solitude – as does the ghost village of Oberschlinder, where no one lives any more. There used to be 20 houses, but now only two remain, and the last residents moved away in 1948 – after the privations of the Second World War. Even before the Battle of the Bulge, many of the residents had emigrated to the USA.
 

The third stage also lives up to expectations in terms of spectacular viewpoints. They have walked more than 50 km. Down below, a train goes by and stops at the station in Kautenbach – the end of the walk. Not much further now. The sun is going down, and they walk quickly down the hill.