The travels of Tim and Megan: Luxembourg

Greetings,

A couple of months ago, we decided that we would each choose a destination for a weekend away that would remain a surprise for the other person pretty much right up until the day of departure. Tim chose Luxembourg and on Friday night, we met after work and made our way to London City Airport. Megan had no idea where we were going until we got to the check-in counter at the airport. After a delay in leaving and a short flight, we were in Luxembourg City, the capital of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

Luxembourg is a fascinating place - it is the only Grand Duchy in the world (ruled by the Grand-Duc Henri) and it has the highest GDP per capita in the world. It is a tiny country wedged in between Belgium, Germany and France. It is just 82km long and 57km wide, making it the 175th largest of the 194 independent countries of the world. It has a population of less than half a million and three official languages - French, German and Luxembourgish, although most of the Luxembourgers also speak English.

A couple of things struck us about Luxembourg straight away - one, that it was the greenest place we had seen since Aotearoa and two, that there were very few tourists around...very refreshing. We stayed at the Parc Plaza, which we definitely recommend. It is very close to the city centre and we had a very pleasant stay there. We particularly enjoyed the complimentary full buffet breakfast each morning!

Saturday

On Saturday morning, we explored the Old Town in the city centre. There are a few squares in the Old Town, packed with cafes, bars and shops, but in the weekends, these squares are also home to all sorts of markets, music and entertainment. In the Place d'Armes, we checked out the antiques and nick-nacks at the market stalls and listened to a brass band, which was performing in the middle of the square. Megan found a bargain (antique tin) at one of the stalls! Close by is the Place de Guilliame II, the main town square of Luxembourg. This was packed with more market stalls, but this time fresh fruit and veges, fish and flowers!

After exploring some more of the shops around the Old Town, we made our way to the Place de la Constitution, home to a rather impressive war monument and more importantly, the pick-up and drop-off point for the mini "train" that was to take us on a tour of the city! The one hour ride took us through the Petrusse Valley (a beautiful big valley running down the western side of the city, full of trees, grass and garden), through the lower suburbs of Grund and Clausen and through the city centre.

After our tour, we walked down the windy path and under the impressive Adolphe Bridge through the stunning Petrusse Valley. It was so quiet and peaceful down there. And so very green! The rough part of exploring the valley was climbing the steps back up to the city afterwards. So we were definitely ready for lunch once we got to the top!

After lunch we visited the famous Casemates du Bock. In 963, Count Siegfried built a fortified castle on the Bock promontory. Over the next few centuries, as the Burgundians, Spaniards, French, Austrians and Germans took turns invading, they eventually added massive ring walls around the inner city and made Luxembourg one of the most powerful emplacements in the world, the "Gibralter of the north". Beneath the fortress was a 23km network of casemates (tunnels), which sheltered thousands of soldiers and their horses, but which also housed workshops, kitchens, bakeries and slaughter houses! In 1867, after the declaration of neutrality, the military withdrew from the fortress and the defences were demolished. However, it proved to be impossible to blow up the casemates without also demolishing part of the city, so the entrances and key connecting galleries were sealed. Today, two of the casemates remain open for tourist visits. We had a great time walking through the casemates although we were caught out by the odd dead end!

Back above ground, we wandered back through the city centre and stumbled across the Grand Ducal Palace, although there was no sign of the Grand-Duc Henri! The palace is open to the public for tours in the summer, but we were about a month early for that, so we just admired it from the outside. Next to the palace is the Clairefontaine Square, yet another pretty little square in the Old Town.

There are loads of bars and pubs in the centre of Luxembourg, so it was not hard to find a cold beer. We visited a pub called The Tube, modelled on the underground system in London, with all the same signage as you see in the London underground etc, and the ceiling was even shaped like a tunnel! We had a couple of beers in there and watched the opening game of the Euro 2008 football championships, although we were eventually scared off by the rather brash and off-the-wall Irish barmaid...next stop was the Cafe de Paris in the Place d'Armes, where we each had a fantastic steak and really good dessert! We definitely recommend eating (and drinking) here; it was ka pai. The Luxembourg beer was very nice - Bofferding seems to be the favourite!

Sunday

Sunday dawned a lot clearer and it ended up being a very hot and sunny day in the Grand Duchy! After another delightful breakfast, we went for another walk through the Petrusse Valley. There were a few joggers and cyclists about, but it was still very peaceful down there! Then we bought a newspaper and sat in the Place d'Armes enjoying the sunshine and listening to the band that was playing...it seems to be non-stop orchestra in the square on weekends!

On the western side of the city centre, there is a huge public garden, unsurprisingly called the City Garden. We lazed on the grass and finished reading the paper and walked through the gardens - the highlight of which was probably the huge adventure playground in the middle, complete with a pirate ship and giant turtles!!!

We actually needed a bit of shade after our jaunt through the gardens, so we decided to check out the Museum of History and Art. Thankfully we got the English audio guide, as there only signage was in French. The museum was quite good, although two floors were closed for renovations. The Luxembourgish art was not quite all we hoped for, although we have been spoilt with quality art of late, both in London and in the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam.

After grabbing some lunch from a bakery in the Old Town and watching the locals do their thing, we returned to the Place de Guilliame II, where there was a Portuguese festival! We discovered during our city tour that Luxembourg has a lot of immigrants from all over Europe, many from Portugal. The festival was great - the square was packed full of people enjoying all sorts of entertainment in the form of traditional music and dancers, a bouncy castle, loads of stalls and several thousand helium balloons. It was really fun.

More shelter was required late in the afternoon, so we had a drink in a bar called Urban, which was really nice. We saw the last part of Nadal's demolition of Federer and then a bit more Euro 2008 football on TV. They do a great club sandwich in Urban, which filled a gap nicely before we headed for the airport and back to London town.