Bit of a random collection of thoughts here, based largely around the attached series of photos. Click on 'em and they get bigger:

The journey began at the Gare d' L'est train station in Paris where we picked up our car, an Opel Corsa, which served us well. At the station we encountered what is possibly the worlds largest vending machine. This room-sized behemoth spits out everything from cat-food to toilet paper. We thought about getting some TV-dinners, but ultimately settled on a bottle of water.

In any case, we were anxious to get moving. The drive took about 3 1/2 hours, and after a bit of a parking fiasco inside an elaborate underground network of roadways, we found ourselves in lovely Luxembourg City. Despite a forbidding and sterile ring of suburbs, the city turned out to be really nice. The central "old town" is perched high on a hill between two river valleys, which are full of parks and gardens, and spanned periodically by magnificent bridges.

It seemed like a perfectly pleasant place to live and work, but I can't say Luxembourg city was exactly "rocking". I suppose if you're really into international affairs or tax laws, you might find quite a lot to do, but otherwise it's just a nice quiet place.

Still, it did have an interesting if only slightly palpable "diplomatic" flair in the air. That was fine with us though, and we had a couple of beers at the popular central square, took a few photos and got on our way.
So, we cruised off to Vianden, right along the border with Germany and were greeted by the stunning vista of the Vianden Chateau high atop the hill which overlooks the town. Our arrival called for a Champagne toast, of the finest Luxembourgois bubbly the Shell Station had to offer, We "eurocamped" for the next two nights, and basically did nothing but bike around, hike, eat and drink. It was fabulous. And you can't beat the 4 Euro a night campground, even if it was overrun by Dutch people in elaborate campervans.
Along with the enormous number of Dutch people, were practically every motorcycle enthusiast in Europe, which looks like a hell of a good way to see the country. Despite that, we rented some clunky bicycles from a shop so inept, they sold us a hiking map instead of a cycling one, which got us into a bit of trouble (don't bike on steep singletracks with a 3 speed schwinn). Nonetheless, we snuck into Germany along the shore of the reservoir above Vianden, discovered a pretty impressive network of trails for mountain biking or hiking. Certainly worth a return.

Despite all this promising activity, the residents of Vianden appear to be bored enough to do some bizarre things with the local foliage.

As for BitBurg - give it a miss. Rather odd German town where I wouldn't be surprised to see David Hasselhoff appear around a corner. Plus, Bitburger is nowhere near as good as I remember it being. If you're looking for a brewery trip near Luxembourg, pop over to the Trappist monastery at Orval, Belgium. A far nicer place with far nicer beer. They also make some fabulous cheese. I've got a hunk of it the size of my head to get through. Hope there's room in the fridge tonight.