Benelux: Done!

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Belgium. The Netherlands. Luxembourg. Sometimes shortened to the term Benelux. I have now visited each of them!

But, before I get into that, it was actually a surprisingly fun and exciting week.

As you all know, Tuesday was St. Patrick’s Day. What you might not know is this is one of my absolute favorite holidays! My obsession with the Irish is shared and celebrated on this one day each year when everyone expresses their love for the Irish! So, of course, I wore green, went to an Irish pub, drank a Guinness and danced the night away. Oh, how I love St. Patrick’s Day.

Another exciting point in my week came on Friday when I got to visit the Headquarters for NATO. In addition to most of the European Union institutions, the headquarters for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is also in Brussels. Because I am helping the Community Liaison Office for the Tri-Missions put together arrival and departure videos for people coming to and leaving the Tri-Missions community, I got to go to NATO to help film a departure seminar they were putting on. Though this wasn’t too terribly exciting, it’s very rare that anyone gets to go to NATO as the security is so strict and you really have to have a reason for going. So, in that aspect, it was exciting.

On Saturday, because Michael had a friend in town and because we had wanted to go there, the three of us went to Luxembourg on a whim. We had wanted to rent a car, though that didn’t really work out so we ended up just taking a train. I do have to admit that once I get back to the States, I am really going to miss just being able to hop on a train on a Friday evening or Saturday morning and head through the countryside to a different country. One thing the U.S. really needs to highly invest in is inter-city public transportation. Talk about creating infrastructure jobs and doing something good for the environment. (More trains = less cars = less CO2 in our atmosphere.) Anyways, enough of that.

So, there we were, on the train to Luxembourg. After three hours and stops in ten different small towns, we finally made it. As we pulled up into Luxembourg the city, we noticed it looked very industrial and not very pretty. We got a little worried that this was what a lot of the city would look like and wondered what we had went there for. But, not surprisingly, after we made it a few blocks from the train station, we started to see beautiful old buildings, vast valleys and cliffs, and trees, trees, and more trees. As soon as we saw the Vallee de la Petrusse (the Petrusse Valley), we knew exactly why we had come. It was breathtaking.

Luxembourg is a small land-locked country with less that half a million inhabitants and it is less than a 1000 sq. miles in area. It’s actually smaller than Thomas County, but with about 60 times the population! The people there speak German, French, and much to my disbelief, Luxembourgish. And, believe it or not, the citizens of Luxembourg are called Luxembourgers. I love it!

As you can see from the pictures, Luxembourg the city is set on the tops of hills and down in valleys. Its layout is very complex, but nonetheless beautiful. We had a great time walking from one part of the city to the next, through the city’s center, and across the magnificent bridges.

Of course, we had to visit the European Union institutions in Luxembourg, something I’m sure (and judging by the amount of tourists we saw around there - none) that no one else ever really makes their way out of the beautiful city center to visit the EU buildings unless they have to. But, for us, it was worth it. Because the EU is so complex it has European Parliament buildings not just in Brussels, but also in Strasbourg in France, as well as in Luxembourg. (I’ve now seen each of them!) Luxembourg is also home to another Commission building, the European Investment Bank, the European Court of Justice, and the European Court of Auditors. Exciting stuff, eh?

After touring the European Square, we made our way back into the city center for a little more touring and some dinner. We ate at a very cute little Italian restaurant and Michael had to stick to his tradition of getting McDonald’s everywhere we go, so we then had milkshakes and mcflurries.

Though we couldn’t really see much of the actual sunset, dusk in Luxembourg was beautiful. The city began to light up as we walked back to the train station. With all of its complexity and multiple levels, Luxembourg appeared a very stunning and pleasant city. A great place to spend a Saturday!

We made it back to Brussels around 10:30 at night and I came straight home and went to bed. I had to wake up very early on Sunday morning to escort a Congressman from Florida, Congressman Alcee Hastings, from the Brussels Forum to the airport.

There was a huge Congressional Delegation in Brussels this weekend for the Brussels Forum. The Brussels Forum is hosted each year by the German Marshall Fund and in their own words is “an annual high-level meeting of the most influential North American and European political, corporate, and intellectual leaders to address pressing challenges currently facing both sides of the Atlantic. Participants include heads of state, senior officials from the European Union institutions and the member states, U.S. Cabinet officials, Congressional representatives, Parliamentarians, academics, and media.” In addition to Senators and Congressmen and women, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke and Chief White House Counsel Gregory Craig were also participants. For more information on this very interesting forum, visit: http://www.gmfus.org/brusselsforum/2009/.

In order to get to the Forum in time to sneak in on one of the sessions that really interested me, I woke up at 6:45, left my house at 7:20 and walked to the Conrad Hotel. There was a discussion with the Chief White House Counsel, Gregory Craig, during the participant’s breakfast. As I waited for Congressman Hastings, I got to sit in on the discussion. The reason I found this particular session so interesting is that Gregory Craig was one of the people that approached President Obama in 2006 and encouraged him to run. He was with Obama throughout most of the campaign and even sat in as John McCain throughout all of President Obama’s debate prep during the general election. Had it not been for Mr. Gregory Craig, Barack Obama might not be our President right now.

It was incredible to hear him speak about President Obama and why he knew he was the best person to be our next president. He also spoke about the nomination process and why it is taking so long for members of President Obama’s Administration to get approved. Another thing I found very interesting was listening to him discuss Guantanamo Bay detainees with the other participants as they posed him questions. One thing I report on a lot at work is what the European media is saying about Guantanamo Bay and whether or not they are reporting favorably about taking in detainees. It was incredible to actually see a real dialogue between a member of President Obama’s Administration and members of parliaments from across Europe on this issue.

In the end, I didn’t have to help get Congressman Hastings to the airport, though I did get to meet him and he was extremely nice. Getting to sneak in on the session with Gregory Craig made it all worth getting up so early for me. Then, I went back home and took a nap before going to mass. I spent the rest of the day relaxing and getting caught up on different things. In the evening, I very happily watched a live stream on my computer of KU beating Dayton to move to into the Sweet 16! Go Jayhawks!

I’m not exactly sure what all this week holds for me. Officially this was supposed to be the last week of my internship, but with the President visiting Europe the week after, I have extended my internship one more week to help with the extra reporting of media coverage that we’re going to have to do. I cannot even believe that had I not extended my internship another week, it would be over after this one. These past 9 weeks have gone so incredibly fast and I’m so far from being ready for my time here to come to an end.

Best wishes for the week and until next time…

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Photos

Adolphe Bridge
Over the Petrusse Valley

Belgian Countryside
On the train to Luxembourg

Checking out the Grund
(the valley area down below)

The Guard of Luxembourg
I'm convinced they only need/ have one.

The Three Towers
Aren't they cute?

Pfaffenthal Region
The bridge in the background is J.F. Kennedy Avenue!

European Parliament - Luxembourg
1 of 3
(The others are in Brussels, Belgium and Strasbourg, France.)

Yeah, Luxembourg!
Such a fun, quaint little city...oh yeah, hot too!

Luxembourg Train Station
Beautiful, not only at night.