Luxembourg

We’ve just had our first day in Luxembourg which was interesting. As with many European cities and towns, they start off with a castle that the town evolves around. Luxembourg Castle had a reputation as being one of the most impregnable yet was still overrun by the French, Italians, Germans, Spanish and Austrians. The high city walls are still in place.

 

 We asked the receptionist where we might go for dinner (they didn’t do dinner at our hotel) and she told us to go to Em’s which has good reports.  We found it and looked at the menu outside, and to our horror we saw “horse steaks, veal head, pigs feet & tripe” – we didn’t stay & read any more !!!  We ended up at another hotel nearby and had mushroom risotto and grilled fish (boring in comparison, but lovely).  We won’t ask again.  The photo of Brian below is him praying the food will be okay !!!

 

First impression of Luxembourg was that it was sleezy but after we went for a walk over the bridge we discovered a town that resembled Paris with its Louis Vitton, Cartier, Rolex and other brand shops.  They didn’t invite you to go in as there were suited men just inside the door waiting to accost you the minute you walked in.

 

This was our ‘day off’ as we are here for 3 days.  We thought we would get our laundry up to date and just ‘chill’.  We’ve read books & I’ve updated my diary, and we walked 1.5 hours this morning just so we could find the tourist information office and see about tours. 

 

Today was our tour day and in the morning we did the hop on/hop off bus which was mildly interesting, and then the little train ride in the afternoon was amazing.  It was a train which ran on the road, albeit very slowly.  It went down in to the old part of Luxembourg outside the walls of the city.  It’s a city that’s built on so many levels. Below is the cathedral of Notre Dame (there is another one in Paris)

You can see from the picture above, some of the old fortifications.

Off to Brussels tomorrow.