Day Four : Sleeping In, Lunch In Town, Shorts and Sandals, and an Animal Park

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Standing in the smoke filled Portuguese Chicken Shop last night, inhaling the deep dark flavours of oil basted pork, and chickens, split and splayed flat between wire frames, I was at the mercy of my senses when deciding what was for dinner; some of everything it turns out. Shiny glistening meat, exploding tiny sprays of oil, ok, fat, blackened as the grills were manually turned, sending my nose and mouth into a drooling mess. “ Chicken, pork ribs, and rice thanks. Yeah, with olive oil and chilli sauce. Thanks.” The talk was Tim. I don’t speak the lingo in these parts. We then stepped aside to allow the next customer in.

There were four sweating, shiny skinned workers; two women preparing, one man standing guard over the charcoal grills, and an older woman, though not as old as me, overseeing, checking orders, and taking the money.

Only two customers were in this small shop at a time, but Tim tells me that it will squeeze in about 15 desperate souls in the heart of winter, all looking to stay warm. And that was at the height of a rampaging COVID in Luxembourg.

The older lady reminded me of the Soup Nazi in the Seinfeld TV series, where orders are taken, and you reverently back step out, without turning your back on her. She was efficient, dominant, and if you wasted her time it could be, “ Go, nothing for you tonight. No chicken for you!”

I wonder if she has a brother driving a Mercedes Uber in Paris.

I slept deeply last night, tripped over my suitcase in the dark, heading to the bathroom, and was woken by an industrial noise that was either:

A : A petrol Blower Vac

B : A petrol concrete cutter

C : None of the above

D : All of the above

If you selected D, you would be close to the mark.



Breakfast was croissants and coffee. Then I went back to bed, still tired. I dozed until midday with the noise rising and falling - never stopping - and had to get out of bed, I was told, so we could walk down to the Bookshop for lunch.

As you can see , the day has been buzzing.

Unfortunately, it’s just been the workers nearby with their bloody machines.

Esch is a wonderful blend of Portuguese migrants, locals, and drop ins like the likes of Tim and Natalia, with French as a common language, but Luxembourgish as the real deal.

Now, what this means is the culinary availability is vast, with French, Portuguese, with a smattering of the usual Asian, Indian, and local food that we all enjoy worldwide.

My first encounter happened as soon as we turned into the main road. One minute I’m breathing fresh air tinged with petrol fumes, then suddenly, bang, the sweet odour of burnt, cooking sugar hit me. I had a vision of a custard filled pastry, dripping with that sugary glaze, and picked up the pace towards the Bookshop.



Luckily, the Bookshop was a very cool multilingual bookstore , with an attached cafe, because I find some things I read really hard to digest ( second corny Dad Joke, and I use the word joke loosely).

The Bookstore had a very eclectic range of gifts, cards , and stationery, so some minor grandson purchases are now stowed away in the luggage.

The coffee shop from yesterday was over the road so we popped over for a cappuccino and made our way home. So Tim could finally start working for the day.

Tonight we are going to an animal park in Esch, whatever that means, so I’ll get back to you later. It’s just reading, nodding off, and dinner here before then.

Hmm. Well, we’re back from the animal park.

Did your parents ever say to you, in a cranky voice, just after you criticised something relentlessly, “ If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.” ?
Well, I’ll be brief.

The Esch Animal Park is located in a charming forest, riddled with cool, shady walking tracks. It is a great place for children to visit, has an enchanting cafe with friendly staff, and a daring tubular cage setup that left one side of the building via the wall, looped over the roof, and twisted its way down the other side, re-entering through a hole in the wall. Back outside, a variety of animals who are tame enough to be hand fed, approach visitors enthusiastically but today there was just a handful of visitors. If the park was busy, this interaction would be hard to achieve.
I think the park looked tired, and other than the little collection of whimsical buildings housing the cafe, it didn’t strike me as a popular tourist spot.
Don’t just accept my criticism on this grey wet day; visit it and make your own call.

Tomorrow, Sue and I might catch the train into the city of Luxembourg and check out the changes made since we last visited in 2019. It could be wet but we’ll see how it goes. Tim and Sue are currently doing a Basic French course on You Tube, so it might be time for me to sneak away to another room.
Catch you tomorrow.

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Photos

Too many choices
Lunch at the Bookstore.

Wandering In The Badlands
Walking down to our new favourite cafe in Esch

Childcare Centre
Previously an orphanage, this could be haunted.

Cafe and Accommodation Settlement. Animal Park
The circular caged area crossing the roof is for children to climb through and access the cafe.