From the overnight car park spot we moved up to the Wiltz castle carpark. 

The castle was started in the 13th century when the lords of Wiltz built a replacement for the old castle on a higher promontory. In 1631, under the rule of Count Jan, construction began on the Renaissance castle that still stands today. The new building was completed around 1720.

We went to check out the museum that houses a brewery, WWII and tannery exhibitions.

The brewery exhibition initially felt like a pub with some very nice ceramic beer pumps made by Villeroy and Boch.

There had been a few breweries in Wiltz from around the 13th century. The method of brewing is cold brewing done at temperatures of 8-10 degrees.

There was a lot of memorabilia.

We then moved onto the WWII exhibition that provided information on the Battle of the Bulge that happened here. The Americans had saved the town from the objective of the Germans to break through the allies and disrupt the allies advance.

Evidence of the war was here. This American tank still remains in Wiltz.

The Americans initially liberated Wiltz in January 1944.

There were American uniforms and photos of the President Eisenhower visit.

The residents had been under German occupation for 4 years so the US troops encouraged them to have their traditional St Nicholas festivities on 7th December. This and any other local tradition had been banned by the Germans in an effort to make them German. One of the Americans played St Nicholas which has been celebrated ever since.

The town was used as a rest and recuperation centre for American troops. Unfortunately the Germans then attacked. All soldiers including the injured, musicians and cooks had to fight.

They were then pushed out by the Germans later in December 1944. They then fought back to ensure the Germans didn’t break through. There were huge numbers of soldiers casualties – fortunately the town people had been evacuated. Unfortunately the town was devastated. It has since all been rebuilt.

We then went to the tannery section with many tools. There had been 2 large tanneries in Wiltz. They employed a lot of town people abd also refugees from other countries. Unfortunately they went out of business in the 1950s.

There is a small brewery here in the castle.

We were now finished so collected our local beer included in the tour on the way out.

We checked out more of the castle.

We walked up the old high street and stopped for a coffee and local rhubarb and custard tart – very nice.

There was some interesting street art and church.

We found the American tank.

We then got on our way to Mainz. 

We arrived around 5.30pm and were welcomed by Angela. Oliver was still at work.

We had a good catch up over dinner. Oliver turned up around 9.30pm after sorting some things out. It was great to see him.