Manternach, Luxembourg

Photo by Christian Steinbach

In some ways, my stay in Luxembourg feels like living in a fairytale. My perspective is of course biased; with no school or work, I have no real responsibilities to mar my impression of beauty and simplicity. One cannot deny, however, that the setting is reminiscent of a storybook illustration. Picturesque countryside stretches out in all directions over rolling hills, spattered with the occasional rural village, always filled with multi-colored houses and the steeple of a Catholic church rising above all the roftops. Now, as I gaze out the window at Manternach, I cannot help but feel as though the even layer of snow dusted on the streets and buildings gives the village an even more charming appearance. The one unexpected factor is the pervading aroma of cows outside; a logical phenomenon for such a pastoral landscape but somehow always left out of the fairytales in the same setting.

Even in this environment, however, I cannot shake the desire to be productive in some way, an urge that I have satisfied by establishing the goal of "training" for walking the Camino de Santiago de Compostela in the Spring. This May, I will join hundreds of pilgrims to trek the famous Route of Saint James through France and Spain. In preparation, I have been spending my days in Luxembourg wandering along country roads. The first day that I ventured off on my own, I walked from Manternach to the next village, Berbourg, along gravel roads where one is more likely to meet a horse than a human; more likely to be run over by a tractor than a car. Somewhere along that path, surrounded by fields in all directions, I came across a sign with a blue background and a yellow pictogram of a shell, the symbol of Saint James, aka Santiago. There I was, in the Luxembourg countryside, breaking in my hiking boots for the Camino, and I discovered that I was already on it.