Luxembourg

Hi all!

So the weekend of June 15-16th, I went to Luxembourg City. I hopped on a train and ~3.5 hours later was there. I decided to stay in the 'new' city, and visit the 'old city'. In Luxembourg City, people are very friendly. Most speak 3-4 languages. In school, students are required to learn German, French and Luxembourgish (it's written into their constitution). Many also speak English. French is the default language used for tourists, German is grudgingly used, although most prefer French. During my trip, I used the little I knew in the following languages: French, German, English, Spanish, and Italian.

As I arrived ~11am, I first went on a hunt for gifts for the family. What might this be? Well, I trekked over 2 miles to the Harley shop to get a few T-shirts and pins. This store was not easy to find, the street signs in the industrial zone were not exactly visible, and everyone I asked didn't even know what street they were on. Luckily I was able to accomplish my mission, so this is country #2 that I've been able to get to a Harley shop.

Next goal, get some lunch. I started my day at 5am, so by 12:30, I was starving. I landed at the Independent Cafe on Roosevelt Blvd, and decided to try some 'nachos'. Now, I'm fully aware that this was not going to be like any nachos that I've ever had in the states. Mexican food is just a food type that they are not able to recreate in Europe... as a result, it is one of the things I miss the most. So, what pray tell you, was the 'nachos' that I ordered? It was a pizza like crust with a tomato sauce, with various squash (zucchini, yellow squash etc), eggplant, and mushrooms. It was cut in half with a salad in between. It was decent, but as I thought, was not the nachos that I know and love. The cafe itself had a nice atmosphere, where you could easily see indie bands playing. The feel of it was very warm, I would recommend stopping in to anyone visiting Luxembourg.

After lunch I meandered to the tourism office and booked 2 tours, one that was 2.5 hrs and went through the old city and the casements, and the other that would go through the promenade the next day. I had a hour to kill, so I did some wandering around.... this wandering around would get me some macarons Laduree and Kaempff-Kohler)..... and I was able to see the Saturday market.

You might be asking what kind of macarons did I have. From Laduree I had a caramel with salted butter and also an orange blossom flavored one.

From Kaempff-Kohler-
Mac. Dax: Composed of a butter cream with almond slivers of Piedmont
     Mac. Black Forest: chocolate shell topped with a light cream gently and delicious cherry kirsch
     Mac. Lemon: Topped with a slightly tangy cream Menton lemon and crumbly shortbread
     Mac. Passion: Topped with a light ganache with passion fruit from New Caledonia
     Mac. Green tea: topped with a chiffon infused with Matcha green tea
     Mac. Mocha Hazelnut: topped with a ganache Arabica coffee from Colombia
     Mac. Chocolate consists of a dark chocolate ganache with roasted cocoa bean
     Mac. Vanilla: a tasty cream Vanilla Madagascar
     Mac. Caramel: caramel sea salt
     Mac. Cassis Blackcurrant Jelly wood finely acidic
     Mac. Chile: Vanilla Cream hand colored in Tonka Bean Brazil
     Mac. Cinnamon: Cinnamon with vanilla ganache





I was also able to find Calissons from Neuhaus, which would make Brie very happy.

Flavors: Tangerine, Lime, Grapefruit, Vanilla, and Blood Orange

Beyond that, I just tried to wander the alleyways and other streets before I went on my tour. The promenade of the old city was like walking through the shopping district of Paris, lots of high name fashion stores in an immediate 3 block radius. One of the cool things I found was this fountain, which seemed to be designed for kids to just look at and enjoy.

So the tour itself was described as this (Guided Wenzel Walk):

"This tour through time and space shows you 1000 years of history! Rated “outstanding cultural itinerary" by the Council of Europe, the walk crosses the famous Bock casemates, connects the upper and lower town and offers amazing views on the fortress ramparts." My tour guide was Lou, short for Louise, and we started going through the Notre Dame Cathedral. We then followed the path to the Government Quarter, where all the government buildings fit within one city block (if that), we also walked past Place Clairefontaine and the statue to Grand-Duchess Charlotte. Charlotte was exiled during WWII with Germany invading Luxembourg. She worked with FDR to reclaim Luxembourg. General Patton went through Luxembourg to get to the Battle of the Bulge, which helped maintain the Luxembourg border as the country was reclaimed. Just outside the city is an American cemetery and a German cemetery to those who died in the war. Luxembourg is also one of the founding countries of the UN.

Notre Dame Cathedral, one of the 2 organs

Notre Dame Cathedral

The former borders of Luxembourg

Grand-Duchess Charlotte

After seeing the statue, we started to walk down the ramparts surrounding the old city on Chemin de la Corniche. The old city is like an island. There are ravines surrounding it and separating it from the new city, which is connected by bridges. The ramparts surround the entire old city, as does a river. Other than the river, the ravines have homes and parks, its a spectacular view. We were headed to the Casements where Count Siegfried built his castle in 963. The castle itself is called the Bock, and it housed everyone needed to maintain the castle, the military, the housekeepers, and was a fully sustained little city, with massive underground kitchens etc. The casements are what's left over from the castle. It measures between 30-40 meters high. A policy long ago established the dis-assembly of the fortress walls, before the country became a Grand-Duchy and was only a Duchy, which was ruled by other countries. This dis-assembly included removing the stones from the fortresses and using them for homes. The casements themselves was a perfect place for ultimate defense, surrounded by a river, high up, and sustainable with food and water, Siegfried picked a good spot. When we were walking to the casements, next to it you could see the gardens, which were started by the monks at the now Centre de Rencontre Culturel Abbaye de Neumunster, but are now maintained by the government, quite a nice accompaniment to the castle. We winded through the casements, saw where a former theater production held shows within, and then went to the Rocher du Bock, or the Bock Promontory. We had an amazing view of the river from here. It also has some Roman ruins nearby. Apparently anytime road work needs to be completed, they run into Roman artifacts and have to hold work until the archaeologists come out to excavate.

Grund

Left: Siefried's casements Right: Gardens

Bock

From the casements view of Grund and Neumunster

View of senior gardens from the casements

One of the replica canons from the casements

Other side of the casements

Monk's garden

Egret in the river surrounding Bock

Another view of the Grund area

View from Grund up to the Cornish area

Ground level

Siegfried's casements and the river behind me

Next up we walked around CIPA which was old military barracks turned into senior residences, and crossed the river next to the train bridge. We proceeded to walk briefly along the river and went onto Rue St Ulric to take the elevator back to the upper level of the old city. Thank goodness for the elevator, as the walk on cobblestones would have taken quite a long time. We walked past the Justice building and went to the Parliament building and the Palais Grand-Ducal, which are side by side. The street lights on this street were created by an artist from Munich and show faces of people in an artistic way, and these lights face the parliament. The Grand-Duchy does not reside in the Palais normally, but when he does, the flag is raised. He wasn't there that day, but there is a guard who patrols back and forth in front of the Palace, just like at Buckingham Palace.

Justice building

Parliament building

Street lights made by the Munich artist

Grand-Ducal Palace

By the time the tour was done, it was 5:30, time to check into the hotel, and get some coffee for co-workers before all the stores closed. Apparently coffee and petrol are lots cheaper in Luxembourg than in Germany. However, the cost of living in Luxembourg is much higher, so people often work in Luxembourg and live in the small German town of Trier and commute by train. I stayed at the Park Inn by Radisson, which was a nice stylish hotel, also very quiet, a major plus in my book. I later wandered back to Place Guillaume II and had some Spanish food for dinner. This included shrimp in butter and garlic, and potatoes, fried with a tomato aoili on the side. While I was waiting for my dinner, I had a perfect view of first a bachelorette party where the ladies were making the future bride take pictures with the lion in front of the city hall building as well as other pranks. They all had aprons on. Later the accompanying bachelor party wandered through. The groom to be was dressed in a red sequined dress, a blond wig, and heels. His pals made him approach other women to ask who knows what. The other guys were wearing black shirts with a hangman's platform and noose on it. Needless to say I was highly amused people watching.

Art exhibit in Luxembourg

William II

The next day, my main plan was to visit some of the city I hadn't seen yet, and then go on the City Promenade tour. Most of the places I expected to be open for breakfast were closed. I found a cafe that was open and indulged in chocolate chaud (hot chocolate), a croissant, and I tried a rhubarb tarte. The croissant was rich, buttery, flaky- in a word, delicious. The hot chocolate was rich, made with cream. The rhubarb tarte lived up to its name and was very, very tart, I couldn't finish that. I made sure though, to get some croissants to go, for my trip back. After checking out of my hotel, I wandered back to the old city and visited the National Monument of Solidarity, and walked to the Holy Ghost Citadel. I asked a guy if he would mind taking a picture of me with the incredible view. We got to talking, his name is Carlos, and he was from Guadalajara, Mexico, went to grad school in France, and was living in Germany, and in Luxembourg for a job interview. Talk about a world view! We kept chatting about European experiences and decided to get a quick lunch as I had to go on my next tour. The city promenade tour ended up being the same tour as I had the day before, except without the casements included. The tour guide was Lou again, but I decided to go along, since the weather actually included sun, so I could try to get better photos than the day before. We walked to the Gelle Fra Memorial, which is a memorial to all those who died in war. Originally it was for the Luxembourgers who served in WWI, but was later expanded after WWII, when it was re-built after the Germans dismantled it. After the tour I ran back to the hotel, grabbed my backpack and ran to the train station. Inside the station the ceiling is painted like an old constellation map of the sky, very gorgeous. 

 

Gelle Fra Memorial

At breakfast, there was a musical performance

View of the Bank Museum

Part of a park in the ravine

Wenzel tour path

View of the new city from the old city

National Monument of Solidarity

Church in the ravine

Village in the ravine leading to the new city

View of the casements and Grund region

The old city

 

Place de la Constitution

Government quarter

Another view of the casements

Siegfried's castle

Gare de Luxembourg

Luxembourg

My train went from Luxembourg to Trier. Once in Trier, my train was delayed about 20 minutes. I heard some guys speaking in English, a rare occurrence for me these days, so I asked them where they were from, responses ranged from India, Hungary, to the Czech Republic. I ended up sitting by them on the train. They were all students at the University of Bonn, and when one of them heard my profession, he asked me what I thought of the current Supreme Court decision on BRCA1 and BRCA2 patents, apparently he was a law student. We chatted all the way to Koblenz, where we all were taking separate trains. Lo and behold, my train was delayed for 45 minutes, so I was rescheduled to their train. They invited me for a quick beer in a nearby patio meters from the station. We downed Bitburger beer in 10 minutes needless to say, before our train was scheduled to depart. All of us continued to chat some more about cultural differences in the various home countries. This was a perfect ending to my trip, because it took the 3.5 hours and made it feel like 20 minutes instead. Now I need to decide where to have my next trip.