We trained out of Brussels on Thursday evening bound for Luxembourg. Unlike the other trains that we had previously been on, this one did not have assigned seating. We were in luck however since Brussels is one of the termini of this particular route. Since we had many seats to choose from we decided to pick a pair of seats that would travel facing forward. We were quite pleased with ourselves for being so clever up until the moment that the train began to move in the opposite direction than we had thought.
Oh well, you can’t win them all.
Once we got off the train, we found once again that we’d arrived after the local info bureau was closed, so we wandered over the bookstore to check out a map. Unfortunately, the only one we found was one attached to an expensive guidebook (pretty much everything in Luxembourg is on the expensive side – ask Randy sometime about his $6 Chapstick). Given that we didn’t want to spend all of our beer money on a guide book, we wandered across the street to the local Best Western and threw ourselves on the mercy of the desk clerk, who rewarded our cheapness with a free map and turn-by-turn directions to our hotel.
It was a bit of a hike up to the hotel, but Luxembourg is an amazingly scenic country, so the walk was very nice. Once we arrived at the hotel, which was located in one of the main town squares in Luxembourg City, we found Angel and Randy waiting for us at the café outside our hotel. They had very sweetly bought flowers and gifts for us (thanks, guys!) and waited for us before eating dinner.
We checked into the hotel, then met Randy and Angel downstairs for some dinner/drinks and listened to the orchestra playing in the gazebo in the town square before retiring for the night and agreeing to meet down at the breakfast spot at hotel café.
When we awoke the next morning, the sun was shining, the birds were singing and the town square was bustling. It was a regular Disney movie Saturday morning. Randy and Angel were waiting downstairs at the breakfast buffet for us, so we grabbed some basic morning yummies, sat for a quick breakfast and then headed out for the day.
The agenda for the morning called for a walking tour of Luxembourg City, which Randy had researched and put together, complete with awesome maps indicating where all the major sites of the city were to be found. The first stop on our tour was a small park with a war memorial, overlooking the deep valley that is part of the city. From there we saw a couple churches, wandered across the city’s “Old Bridge” and began following the path down to the river, which according to our two maps would eventually lead us to the city’s “New Bridge” and back to the city center.
And that’s where the adventure really began. We followed the river under, over and across many bridges, passed through lush forested land, passed cuter-than-cute little neighborhoods and generally got lost in the stunning beauty of Luxembourg. And I mean that literally.
After about an hour and a half of walking, we didn’t seem to be any closer to the New Bridge – or, more to the point, couldn’t tell if we were because, as it turned out, we’d walked off the edge of the map that we had, so we stopped to ask directions and discovered that if we kept walking that direction, we’d have to walk the circumference of the globe to make it back to Luxembourg City and our hotel. Since Randy and Angel had left the car in the city at a 2-day lot, we had a hotel room booked for a second night, and we need to be back to our jobs sometime this century, we promptly reversed course and headed back up the hill to the city. The walk back up was as stunningly beautiful as the walk down. This is definitely, by-far, my favorite walking city thus far.
After making our way out of the no-so-wild wilds of Luxembourg City’s green valley, we found a great little Indian restaurant for lunch and enjoyed butter chicken and Hot Tikka Masala for lunch before working our way back to the Place d’Arms square in which our hotel was located. Once there, we took in the big band that was still going strong in the town square. Or, I should say, they were going strong until a group of roving Hare Krishna followers entered the square at one corner, singing and dancing an chanting – at which point the band wisely took a break until the Hare Krishna group completed their tour of the square, exiting at an adjacent corner.
We then wandered a short bit more before Angel and Randy decided to stop for dinner while Rolf and I went souvenir shopping. Having had a full day we collapsed for the night – apparently sleeping through some raucous partying in the square that kept Angel and Randy up ‘till the wee hours of the morning.
Oh well, you can’t win them all.
Once we got off the train, we found once again that we’d arrived after the local info bureau was closed, so we wandered over the bookstore to check out a map. Unfortunately, the only one we found was one attached to an expensive guidebook (pretty much everything in Luxembourg is on the expensive side – ask Randy sometime about his $6 Chapstick). Given that we didn’t want to spend all of our beer money on a guide book, we wandered across the street to the local Best Western and threw ourselves on the mercy of the desk clerk, who rewarded our cheapness with a free map and turn-by-turn directions to our hotel.
It was a bit of a hike up to the hotel, but Luxembourg is an amazingly scenic country, so the walk was very nice. Once we arrived at the hotel, which was located in one of the main town squares in Luxembourg City, we found Angel and Randy waiting for us at the café outside our hotel. They had very sweetly bought flowers and gifts for us (thanks, guys!) and waited for us before eating dinner.
We checked into the hotel, then met Randy and Angel downstairs for some dinner/drinks and listened to the orchestra playing in the gazebo in the town square before retiring for the night and agreeing to meet down at the breakfast spot at hotel café.
When we awoke the next morning, the sun was shining, the birds were singing and the town square was bustling. It was a regular Disney movie Saturday morning. Randy and Angel were waiting downstairs at the breakfast buffet for us, so we grabbed some basic morning yummies, sat for a quick breakfast and then headed out for the day.
The agenda for the morning called for a walking tour of Luxembourg City, which Randy had researched and put together, complete with awesome maps indicating where all the major sites of the city were to be found. The first stop on our tour was a small park with a war memorial, overlooking the deep valley that is part of the city. From there we saw a couple churches, wandered across the city’s “Old Bridge” and began following the path down to the river, which according to our two maps would eventually lead us to the city’s “New Bridge” and back to the city center.
And that’s where the adventure really began. We followed the river under, over and across many bridges, passed through lush forested land, passed cuter-than-cute little neighborhoods and generally got lost in the stunning beauty of Luxembourg. And I mean that literally.
After about an hour and a half of walking, we didn’t seem to be any closer to the New Bridge – or, more to the point, couldn’t tell if we were because, as it turned out, we’d walked off the edge of the map that we had, so we stopped to ask directions and discovered that if we kept walking that direction, we’d have to walk the circumference of the globe to make it back to Luxembourg City and our hotel. Since Randy and Angel had left the car in the city at a 2-day lot, we had a hotel room booked for a second night, and we need to be back to our jobs sometime this century, we promptly reversed course and headed back up the hill to the city. The walk back up was as stunningly beautiful as the walk down. This is definitely, by-far, my favorite walking city thus far.
After making our way out of the no-so-wild wilds of Luxembourg City’s green valley, we found a great little Indian restaurant for lunch and enjoyed butter chicken and Hot Tikka Masala for lunch before working our way back to the Place d’Arms square in which our hotel was located. Once there, we took in the big band that was still going strong in the town square. Or, I should say, they were going strong until a group of roving Hare Krishna followers entered the square at one corner, singing and dancing an chanting – at which point the band wisely took a break until the Hare Krishna group completed their tour of the square, exiting at an adjacent corner.
We then wandered a short bit more before Angel and Randy decided to stop for dinner while Rolf and I went souvenir shopping. Having had a full day we collapsed for the night – apparently sleeping through some raucous partying in the square that kept Angel and Randy up ‘till the wee hours of the morning.
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