Roving Sun – Here and there but not quite everywhere!

We visited Washington, DC in the morning today to see the cherry blossoms around the Tidal Basin. It was, unfortunately, well past peak bloom.

After breakfast at the Luxembourg Marriott Hotel Alfa, we walked to the north across the Passerelle to the Ville Haute. We enjoyed the view of the remnants of the Fortress of Luxembourg, briefly descended to the Grund via elevator, and visited the Notre-Dame Cathedral before walking through the Bock Casemates. After, we had lunch in front of the Grand Ducal Palace before visiting the Pétrusse Casemates. We walked back up through the Pétrusse Valley, spending more time in the Ville Haute before returning to the Marriott via an interesting walkway suspended below the Adolphe Bridge.

After flying from Dulles to Brussels on United, we took the train down to Namur. We spent most our time there visiting the Citadelle de Namur, accessed via gondola, and even got a private guided tour of its underground tunnels, although it was only private because we were the only people who booked today! We also enjoyed lunch and a short walk through the city before continuing on to Luxembourg where we checked in to the Luxembourg Marriott Hotel Alfa.

Rather then head up to breakfast at the 名古屋マリオットアソシアホテル Nagoya Marriott Associa Hotel, we did a bit of packing and then went downstairs to queue for ぴよりん Piyorin. They had special 2026 Year of the Horse ones! After eating them all, we visited 矢場とん Yabaton for one last meal in Nagoya before taking the Shinkansen back to Tokyo. We enjoyed the ANA Lounge at Haneda before flying back to the US on United, ending our nearly one month long trip!

Happy New Year! We woke up before sunrise and headed up to the lounge at the 名古屋マリオットアソシアホテル Nagoya Marriott Associa Hotel for breakfast and for 初日の出 hatsuhinode, the first sunrise of the year! We then headed up to 犬山 Inuyama for 初詣 hatsumode, the first temple or shrine visit of the year, which we did at 針綱神社 Haritsuna-jinja. We spent the rest of the day visiting the 国宝 National Treasure 犬山城 Inuyama Castle and the nearby 三光稲荷神社 Sanko Inari-jinja. After lunch and snacks at the 犬山城下町 Inuyama Castle Town, we walked east to visit the large Buddhist 大聖寺 Daisho-ji, a temple on a hill overlooking the city, before returning to Nagoya to end our last full day in Japan of this trip.