We gave ourselves a morning off & did some chores & chatted to the Dutch neighbours, then as it was raining (again!) we drove to have a look at Vianden & its impressive castle. We didn't hang around as it was a) too wet & b) full of coach parties & returned to Diekirch for lunch.

Its a nice little town even in the wet, with more cafes & restaurants than I think I've ever seen, as well as one of the oddest statues: the Ducat Donkey. A boy is lifting up the donkey's tail & catching a stream of coins out of its bottom into his hat......there are several explanations for it, the most persuasive being from a Brothers Grimm story where a donkey spews gold pieces from both ends to make the owner rich. The donkey is Diekirch's mascot, presumably to bring riches to the town - there is also a small donkey on top of St Lawrence's church steeple and 2 near the town hall, but too small to photograph.

We spent the afternoon in the National History Museum, a very impressive place over 3 floors telling the story of Luxembourg through its army & particularly its contribution in WW2. The Battle of the Bulge was fought in & around Diekirch in Dec /Jan of 1944, involving the Germans v the US/Lux, with 83,000 German casualties and 69,000 Allies. Diekirch was also evacuated in 1942 when the Germans annexed Luxembourg & conscripted all the young men.

The exhibits were really interesting: thousands of pieces of memorabilia & photos, all put together with dioramas bringing history to life. The only slightly disconcerting thing was that many of the human figures seemed to be shop mannequins with inbuilt chiselled cheekbones! We had ipod audio guides in English to interpret it all & explain what we were looking at, which helped a lot - a very good €3 investment.

This evening we strolled around the site; there are many permanent caravans with varying degrees of tidiness, some with fences on their decks and outbuildings nearby, some with extra roofs but mostly unoccupied. There is quite a bit of wildlife here too, from swans sailing serenely to an otter we spotted fighting his way to the bank.