Luxembourg

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Luxembourg



We had finally arrived in Luxembourg around 5am after a long ride of almost 11 hours on plane from Indonesia. It was a relief for all of us. We looked around the new setting before we took the free shuttle from the airport to ETAP hotel which was 5 minutes away. We got our card for our room with a king size bed and a single bed. We had a long day to look forward to so we took another nap.I put the alarm on my phone for 11am.I woke up Angie and Jasmine so we could have enough time to shower,get ready ,and eat breakfast. I remembered to tell Angie and Jasmeen to wear black pants and a white shirt because it is a tradition for the Dancing Procession of Echternach.We were ready at 12:30am and we went down for breakfast in the hotel. I was mentioning to Angie and Jasmine how Luxembourg is a landlocked (an interior country or state that is surrounded by land) and small country so it is very influenced by France ,Germany, and Belgium customs. The breakfast in Luxembourg is influenced by France and Belgium and so they eat light portions . We got Weinzossis ,which is a light sausage usually served with mashed potatoes and a mustard cream sauce. I was mentioning to Jasmine and Angie that Luxembourg is a multilingual state ( country in which two or more languages are spoken) , with people speaking Luxembourgish, French, German and interestingly the official language (in multilingual states the language selected, often by the elite, to promote internal cohesion) are also those three languages. But that luckily since we are in the city we might be able to find someone that speaks English. Finally, we had finished breakfast and we called a taxi so we could get to our challenge activity.

It was 1:30pm when we got in the taxi the driver introduced herself as Emma and told us she knew how to speak French and a bit of English. We were lucky. Angie asked Emma if she could drive us to City of Echternach for the Sprangprëssessioun. Emma began to explain to us how it will be very crowded and exciting since it is a big annual event. We were excited and once we we were there it was 2:15pm already. We payed her and said Merci. We walked to get around the crowd and we also bought some handkerchiefs from little stands for the dance. We were prepared now that at 3pm the priest began to give his speech. The priest began to say how this is an annual Roman Catholic dancing procession around the streets of the city of Echternach to honor St. Willibrord, the patron saint of Luxembourg. To take this time of dancing to the saint's tomb as an act of penance. By 3:30pm Jasmine, Angie, and I were excited looking around to see the big crowd ,that was going to participate, beginning to line up to begin the dance. It is composed of rows of five to seven dancers, each dancer grasping the ends of a handkerchief, while moving forward slowly to the Sprangpressessioun melody being played by the band behind. I lined up with Jasmeen to my left and Angie to my right. We followed as the Sprangpressessioun dancers "hopped": two steps to the left, two to the right.We kept dancing and taking breaks and talking to people participating for about an hour and a half. Through the dance we saw how many people were dedicated to their religion.There were some people to the side just watching, taking pictures of the beautiful event. Jasmine finally said that we should take a break because her feet were aching. So we got out of the dance and started walking back . We began talking about the dance and how fun it was to try something new. "I still can't believe that they continue for another hour and a half ," I said as we went inside a restaurant along with a crowd that had left the dance. We were hungry and we were satisfied with the custom of luxembourg people eating a big portion for lunch/dinner. We ordered steak ,pork Judd mat Gaardebounen, and different dishes of potato with cream sauces. The waiter was explaining how potatoes is a main and traditional dish served in Luxembourg. We also ordered dessert Quetschentaart which is fruit tart such as plum, peach, cherry, and pear.We kept on looking around to see the kind of food and drinks other people ordered to see the tradition of food in Luxembourg. By the time that we finished eating all sorts of new delicious foods it was 8pm. We got on and went back to the hotel.It was 8:45 pm so we took some time to walk around the city to see the different buildings and styles. We got back to the hotel around 9pm and showered and got everything ready.We went to sleep at 11pm knowing we would have to wake up at 3am for the next flight. We got on the free shuttle towards the airport with our luggages onto the next adventure in Bosnia.

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