A freezing northerly wind whips over the snowy “Buergplaz” (or “Buurgplaatz” if you prefer your vowels doubled). Sheltering in the lee of a Rapunzel tower, warm drinks clutched tightly in cold hands, a nearby sign informs us that we are at a whopping 559 metres altitude: the highest point in all of Luxembourg.
But is this true?
Getting to the Buergplaz needn’t be an adventure – a road called “Op der Burrigplatz” leads out of the village of Huldange directly past this spot (whilst demonstrating yet another alternative spelling) – but we had hiked from the village of Wilwerdange, a few kilometres away. Through subarctic tundra (normally farmland) and the Siberian forest (some woods) we trekked, in a constant state of childish elation at the winter wonderland all around us.
Having reached the goal for the day, I was simply enjoying a well-earned coffee and planning a route back to the car when I noticed something on the map: a hill less than a kilometre south-east of Buergplaz called “Kneiff“. 560 metres. One metre higher!!
Having come all this way only to find out we weren’t on the roof of Luxembourg after all, we immediately set off to conquer the rightful claim to this prestigious throne. Oddly, almost exactly half-way between the two places we passed another snow-covered monument also claiming to be the Buergplaz, again with different spelling (“Burgplatz” this time) and a slightly different altitude (558m). This was becoming confusing…
But as we trudged through boot-high virgin snow up towards Kneiff, we became increasingly confident that we were finally in the correct place. The wind had died down, allowing us to enjoy the 360° views all around Luxembourg’s true highest point. The only problem was finding exactly where it was: there is, apparently, a white stone marking the place under all that snow, but we clearly had no chance of locating it, not today. One small rise did seem to be higher than all the others, but it turned out to be a 1m high drift that the dog was gleefully swallowed into before reappearing, a joyful, bounding mass of white powder and golden fur.
But anyway, we had done it – on quite possibly Luxembourg’s snowiest day of the year, we had made it to Luxembourg’s highest point. All three of them…
Outdoor Active map of our route:
(c) 2021 Jonathan Orr
Luxembourg Outdoors 