Judging by the map today was the toughest day of the hike. Fortunately the heat had subsided and the weather was perfect for the journey, and I walked 32 kilometres - the longest day of the journey yet.
I went from Kleinbettingen to Mersch, via Koerich, Septfointaines, Roodt-sur-Eisch, Bour, Ansembourg and Hollenfels – that is, through the Valley of the Seven Castles. I had been here before, but it’s quite different off the beaten track.
Mid-morning I received a message from Wagner, a sushi chef who works at Yokoso, a restaurant in the capital. He wished me luck and promised to bring raw fish to my next destination. I called him and we arranged to meet at Mersch Castle. Of course, I had some snacks in my backpack but the prospect of eating a maki or nigiri at the end of it all certainly gave me courage to continue.
Wagner showed up at Mersch Castle with a bag full of surprises. Food is one of the greatest pleasures that life can offer and at that moment salmon tasted like salvation. And it was then that I looked at the map and realised that I still had three kilometres to go. My final destination was Beringen, out in the far distance.
Luckily for me, I was going to continue the route next to Anne Faber, one of the people who knows the most about food in this country.
Faber, known for her recipes and tips on Anne's Kitchen, spoke to me about how eating habits are changing Luxembourg - and maybe the whole world. She has published five cookbooks, appeared on several TV programmes and just recently started a cooking programme on German television. But she has, above all, an unusual ability to understand and explain the world through flavours.
She warned me right away: "I know you like red wine best, but today you'll have a Luxembourg white with me."
It wasn't exactly a great sacrifice to grant her request. We went to A Guddesch, a restaurant that relies on local and seasonal products. The in-house chef, René Vogl, showed us their own chicken coops as well as a vegetable garden that provides for the restaurant plus a greenhouse of strawberries. We ordered Luxembourgish dishes - Kniddelen, Bouchée à la Reine, and Feierstengszalot.
"The way we eat is changing, in Luxembourg and in the rest of the world," Faber said. "If you look closely, the European Union has recently approved the food consumption of insects. There are scientists making functional food, tasteless but full of nutrients. In other words, there are projects that can solve humanity's food supply.”
In recent years, people have been on a quest to find authenticity in food.
"Eating well, eating tasty food, is a privilege," Faber said. "It always has been, really. But now, for the first time, we're seeing communities creating gardens, people growing small gardens on their balcony, programmes to pick fruit from orchards. So there is this revolution in gastronomy that is actually a revolution in the world. Good food is a privilege. And it has never been more accessible.”