Tucked in between Germany, Belgium, and France is the tiny country of Luxembourg. This little dot on the map (Luxembourg makes up 0.02% of Europe) has always intrigued me. And after seeing Vatican City, I suggested we visit this other tiny country. So, we headed down for a short stay in Luxembourg. Specifically, after watching a travel documentary on the hiking and the walled Old-City, we decided to spend all our time in Luxembourg City.
As has happened many times on this trip, we arrived at the train/bus station (we again had to use a combination of busses and trains to get here) and immediately wondered if this was a mistake. The city was nothing like what we had seen in our travel documentary. But we started to walk to our new apartment and… well things did not get any better! And in fact, when we reached our building, we were pretty sure by the looks of it that we were in the wrong place. But we figured out we were correct. So we took the elevator to the 7th floor and stumbled into our new place. The views from our bedrooms was of an ugly set of buildings and construction sites. But then we walked into the living room and discovered giant windows overlooking the most picturesque old city you could imagine!
To be honest, we really did not do much in terms of exciting activities while here. We spent most of our time hiking around the city walls and parks, and visiting the various town squares. The first day was very hot and so we enjoyed more leisurely walking and eating outside in the shade. This was the first place where we encountered horse on the menu. I understand it is cultural, but eating horse still feels creepy to me. I think we might have done more that first day if it were not so hot! But the good part was that we had a lot of laundry to do, and the hot weather made our deck the perfect spot for quickly drying clothes. It also made spending a few hours inside the apartment doing homework more agreeable. And in fact, after going out for an early dinner we even did a family movie. Tommy had not seen School of Rock, so we watched it, and he loved it!
We got up early the next morning to do a longer hike around the Old City Walls before it got too hot. The heat never came, and we were actually freezing our fingers during most of the trip. It was more than 30 degrees colder than the day before. But we hiked around five miles, and that warmed us up a bit. I was wearing my Buffalo Bills hat while hiking and we ran into TWO different groups of Bills fans!
Two things that really stood out while we were exploring the city were the Red Bridge (officially the Grand Duchess Charlotte Bridge) and the Pfaffenthal Panoramic Glass Elevator that is nearby. The elevator takes you 235 feet straight up from the village at the base of the city wall (Alzette Valley) to Pescatore Park which is above the wall at the level of the Old City. It is an amazing visual experience, and because public transport is free in Luxembourg, you can take the ride for free!
Technically Luxembourg is constitutional monarchy with the Grand Duke still holding power. He lives in a palace in Luxembourg city and right across from it is a cozy little restaurant that serves very fine local cuisine. We found it while researching where to eat real Luxembourgish dishes. And we specifically wanted really good Judd mat Gaardebounen. This is a dish with peasant roots that is basically fava beans cooked in a light sauce so that it tastes half like pea soup and half like lima beans. On top of this is slow cooked pork collar. On the side are cubed roasted potatoes. I had a local beer with mine and Sarah a regional wine. Tommy had a chicken sandwich with onions, fries, and a Fanta. Anyway, of all the regional dishes this is the one we want to learn for home and especially fall and winter at camp!
Anyway, this was Luxembourg, and we like it a lot. In fact, we might have totally loved it if it were not for how much we loved Brussels and we kept comparing the two (which is totally unfair). Let’s see how it compares to our next stop: Basel, Switzerland.