First, Some Background and Information About Hiking in Luxembourg

If you don't know me, I am a hiker. Last year I walked 1,600 km (1,000 miles), mostly in Luxembourg (where I live) and often with my Darling Husband (hereafter known as DH) who likes hiking, too.

Although this is going to be a blog about the Camino de Santiago, I wanted to start with a little background and also share some resources for hiking in the Grand Duchy.

I belong to a hiking group here in Luxembourg that is made up of members of the American Women's Club of Luxembourg. We tend to hike distances of about 10 km twice a week (Mondays and Fridays). These hikes often come from what we call the Blue Book or commune ("community") hikes. These hikes are circular: you start and finish at the same point, which is almost always a parking lot.

The DH and I often hike on weekends (if we aren't on our bicycles). If we aren't cobbling together a couple of the Blue Book hikes (to make something closer to 20 km), we often use what we call CFL hikes. CFL is short for "Chemin de Fer Luxembourgeoise" or the national railway. The CFL hikes are generally linear hikes. We tend to drive to a train station ("gare"), park, take the train to the hike start, and then walk back to the car. The CFL hikes are good ones to combine to make for a 18 to 24 km day.

The Blue Book hikes, the CFL hikes, and what are called "sentiers nationaux" (national footpaths) are all available on a website we refer to as "the Geoportal." This is a great resource (available online and as a smartphone app) that also includes cycling and mountain bike trails. The app has saved us more than once when we have wandered off course.

Once a month, I usually join a smaller, slightly more hardcore group of women for what we call a "ramble." These are hikes in the 20 to 25 km range. These hikes can be Luxembourg sentiers. Lately we have been walking sections of a German hike network called the Moselsteig. Yeah, the site is in German. But you can figure it out.

Sometimes (although rarely), I will participate in what is called a marche populaire. These hikes usually offer two or three possible distances -- something like 6/12/20 km. They are nice because there is almost always someone selling sausages and cremant after. They can be a pain because they are popular, and parking can be a problem. The DH thinks they have too many people ambling along at a snail's pace, so we don't do these very often. But if you follow the link, you will see that there is a hike just about every weekend.

And every September, I join a group of women for a three-day hiking weekend. I've gone with them to Epernay (France's champagne region), Heidelberg, and Boullion (SW Belgium). In a few weeks we are going to Bruges.

There are branches of the Camino all through Europe, including Luxembourg. My children sigh and roll their eyes when I point out the scallop shells that mark the routes. Shortly after we arrived in Luxembourg, I suggested we spend a school break hiking the last 100 km of the Camino as this is the minimum distance necessary to say you have officially completed it. The kids, of course, nixed that idea. We compromised by hiking 100 km in Luxembourg over two weeks. We saw the shells often, and this has, oddly, left them with a great deal less enthusiasm about it.

Some of my hiking colleagues have already done one or more of the routes that lead to Santiago. I have read a number of books about it (although not Shirley MacLaine's).  I have seen the Martin Sheen/Emilio Estevez movie and read the accompanying book about it. There are endless resources available about the Camino -- I'll devote a post to what I have enjoyed or found helpful.

My point is that I have been interested in the Camino for years, and it was only a matter of time before I got serious about really doing it.