Valentine's in Fischbach, Luxembourg.

Generally people flock to Paris for Valentines and rightly so since it is considered to be the most romantic city. I too dabbled with the thought of spending Valentine's in Paris however for some reason I couldn't get Luxembourg out of my head. So we decided to ditch the routine roses or popular Paris and visit Luxembourg instead and do something different.

Instead of choosing to stay in some swanky hotel and spending time alone, we chose to go couch-surfing and stay with locals. Couch-surfing mostly has singles registered on it, few couples and travel enthusiasts. Rarely have I seen families on the site. I was pleasantly surprised to see a family of three  ( Luxembourg gentleman, Japanese lady with their girl ) not only on the site but with a huge number of references. Somehow I was really drawn to it and wanted to spend time with this adventurous family and gladly Gabi was open to the thought as well.

Our couch-surfing family was based out of Fischbach, a small village about 20 minutes from Luxembourg city. The drive up to the house through meadows, green landscape and low hills was absolutely stunning. The landscape and houses reminded me of Switzerland.

We reached our destination by mid-day and were welcomed into a beautiful country-side house in lush green surroundings by our CS family.

Michel invited us to join him on his daily walk in the forest. Even though it was drizzling and cold, a walk in the forest sounded fabulous and too good to refuse.

Walking hand-in-hand with Gabi, enjoying the views, chirping of the birds, clean fresh air, alternating sun-n-drizzle and Fischbach stories from our CS host Michel, was how we spent our afternoon, our Valentine afternoon. It was simple and perfect.

Our walk back was awarded by yet another picturesque view and a rainbow

We enjoyed dinner together sharing stories of our respective countries, cultures and of-course food. Dum-aloo ( which I had carried for our dinner together with me ), egg-plant with Japanese rice from our host.

A Spanish dessert prepared by our host Yoko

The house was better than any five star hotel! Truly! Each and every corner was perfect and so clean. Later Michel told us that their house had won awards for the energy preservation techniques used. The house was naturally warm and used no artificial heating. The toilets functioned using the natural rain water. Michel himself was an engineer and energy conservation was both his profession and passion. Turns out he was almost a celebrity in this field and a published writer.

The surprises did not end there. Later at night after dinner we all went down to their basement living room where they had a piano. Michel's wife, Yoko played beautifully. We stayed there for sometime and then excused ourselves to our room on the top floor. As I prepared to sleep I could hear the family laugh and enjoy themselves together. It was all so beautiful and honest. As I drifted off to sleep to the piano music I whispered a small 'thankyou' to this universe, for the beautiful experience on the day of love. It could not have been spent better.

A big Thank You to Michel and Yoko for having us over. It was a pleasure to have them as company and experience staying in their beautiful eco-friendly house!