Tag: Ardennes

Wiltz (Ardennes), Luxembourg July 2022 (Tour 6)

We crossed the border from Belgium and stopped at the first campsite we saw, Camping Kaul, which proved to be a top site and one that we would have been happy to stay at for longer but as for the town of Wiltz… it was very quiet. We walked it all and despite having a population of 5,500+, it appeared deserted (and this at a time when the town is in the middle of it’s Summer Holiday Festival – there were signs all over the town advertising the festival and we even visited the outdoor music hall to see what was going on – nothing! ). Disappointing but, sometimes, that’s the way the cookie crumbles.

That’s the Camp Kaul swimming pool behind Vanya. The locals seemed friendly enough and one went out of his way to help guide us into town (past a quite exquisite mural).
There were very few decent photo opportunities in Wiltz but there is a story behind the lighthouse style monument in the second photo (above) which is certainly worth recounting . In August 1942, during WW2, after the German occupiers of Luxembourg introduced forced conscription of workers, some people in Wiltz went on strike and that strike quickly developed into a General Strike. The Nazis responded by executing 21 Luxembourgers and the monument, erected in 1954, pays tribute to those victims. Brave people.

And then the evening improved. As we made our way back to the campsite we happened upon a small but surprisingly noisy little bar owned by a Luxembourg-Romanian who was entertaining a few friends from the Balkans (well, the guy I first spoke to was from Montenegro and the owner of the bar subsequently confirmed that his customers come from all over the Balkans). We were made to feel most welcome and the owner charged me “mates rates” for the alcohol we drank. Yep, there’s nothing wrong with the people we met in Wiltz.