Exploring Luxembourg's smuggler trails at dusk

We meet smugglers and customs officers along the border, hear their anecdotes and roam through the dark woods at night. A thrilling, family-friendly evening walk and a clever performance that brings history to life.
 

Twilight is fast approaching in the courtyard of the Kulturmillen in Beckerich, west Luxembourg. Just a few kilometres from the Belgian border, our group is chatting, zipping up our coats and gearing up with our headlamps for an evening of adventure. As dusk begins to fall, our group, led by Jos Goergen, sets off along the border between Luxembourg and Belgium for a night of specially staged performances that transport us back to a time when smuggling here was rife.

We cross a wooden bridge over a wet, swampy area. Bubbling away quietly in the knee-deep grass, little frogs hop out of the wetland greenery. If you stop for a moment, you can hear the grass rustling in the wind and the water gently gurgling beneath the boards. With the sky deepening to a dark blue, it’s time to enter the woods.

We trace the invisible border that Jos tells us ‘used to be a lifeline heading towards the village.’ It was a deliberate decision to schedule this walk for nightfall – it’s all part of the concept. The shadows make you listen more intently, and the sun isn’t there to distract you from the stories. Plus, who goes smuggling in broad daylight?

A beacon of light

The forest thins out and we see it – the chapel on the Kuelebierg. Just off the beaten track, it is connected to the village by a short Way of the Cross. It’s all lit up on the inside, and it looks magical in the dark, beckoning to us as a retreat from the danger of the woods.

It’s time for a break. The ‘smuggled goods’, (all totally legal), are happily shared out between everyone in the group. The role play turns into a social gathering; voices fill the whole room, someone is telling another anecdote while the guide hands out more food, laughing. But this shared meal at the end of the night is not just an added bonus, it’s the grand finale of the performance. All that tension-building is followed by bonding.

On the way back, everyone walks closer together, familiar with the sound of each other’s footsteps. And now the night has well and truly fallen; our ears pick up on the sounds even more keenly. Is that an animal rustling some leaves, or the sound of approaching footsteps? By the end of the tour, we don’t leave the woods with goosebumps. No, we leave with the feeling that we’ve just experienced local history up close.