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After a very peaceful night we hit the road. Keeping one eye on Suzys dashboard we kept checking the fuel consumption which remained constant and the engine ticked over nicely despite the little light which kept telling us something was wrong. The motorways were quiet . It was Sunday and all the lorries were parked up on the service areas and had left the roads to us motorists. We had our bill for using the french motorways £90 for a three days travel from Calais to the Frejus tunnel. We had avoided the tolls back by using the German roads but in all honesty Glenn hated them. They were endless lines of road works. The verdict -driving through France and paying the tolls was better than driving these endless boring roads. No tolls but boring and grey. The weather too had started to turn. The sun was weak and wan . More like the weather back home. The roadside verges covered in the same flowers as back home. Lilac trees blossoming.
Our destination was a Camp site in Luxembourg. Camping Bon Accuille another ACSI site which we had tried to use a few years ago. Good site but last time
the site was full and an ooopah band was getting ready for the Octoberfest in the field next door. This time the site was relatively quiet and we paid up and asked how to get into Luxembourg City on the bus. I was given a bus time table and after lunch we walked to the main road to the church and the bus stop. The bus was due according to the time table from the campsite at 13.40 so we arrived at 13.15 waiting for the bus to arrive . After half an hour a priest turned up and we fell into discussion about the bus which had failed to turn up. He checked on his mobile phone and it turned out we had the weekday times and the next bus would not turn up until almost 2 pm. It turned up on time and we paid 2 euros each for the trip into the city.
Luxembourg City was heaving. There were bands walking the street carrying their instruments. The scouts and guides were there and the church bells were ringing . It was obvious something big was going on and I could only guess there was a celebration
on for VE day. There was evidence of concerts as the townsfolk were putting out chairs and staging. From the bus stop we headed for the heart of the city which is picturesque and is perched high on precipitous cliffs that drop into the narrow valleys of the Alzette and the Petrusse rivers. Deep gorges cut by the rivers are spanned by many bridges and viaducts which include the Adolphe Bridge and the Grand Duchess Charlotte Bridge and Passarelle. Although Luxembourg City is not particularly large, its layout is complex, as the city is set on several levels, straddling hills and dropping into the two gorges which meant a lot of walking. We sat for a while drinking coca cola in a nice street cafe.
One of the sights of Luxembourg is underground. Taking an underground tour is hardly an unusual experience these days. There are tours of sewers in many of the major cities of the world . Tours of bomb shelters, abandoned train lines and natural caves in almost every major city or town and even in the countryside .. So what makes the 23 kilometres of tunnels known as the Casemates of Luxembourg different and worthy
of special attention? Known as the Gibraltar of Europe they did make me think of the tunnels beneath the rock that I visited way back in 1966.
We paid our entry fee 8 euros and joined the few who were making the underground tour. For a start there’s the age of this network of roughly carved passages. Most were built in the 17th century by the Spanish, who at the time were masters of Southern Netherlands (which included Luxembourg). Since the tunnel’s construction Luxembourg has ‘welcomed’ Italian, Belgian, French, Austrian, Dutch and Prussian troops. All made use of the defensive strengths of the casemates and most made adaptations or extensions that can still be seen today. We wandered down the narrow corridors of the casemates beneath one of Europe’s smaller states and wondered how you could get horses down there to transport supplies and weapons. 35,000 people fitted in here when the tunnels served as a civil defence shelter during the two world wars? And perhaps most intriguingly just how secure are the Bank of Luxembourg’s vaults, found behind the locked entrance to the casemates deep under the bank itself? We walked through mile after mile of tunnels some
with guns and other rooms empty.
After our tour of the casements we walked through the old city the Grund which was tiny and headed back to find a taxi home. After my most expensive swim we found ourselves paying the most expensive taxi home . As we drove the taxi driver spoke in English., he turned out to be a Nigerian who had moved to Luxembourg 15 years ago. The taxi cost us 23 euros for the short drive home . But worth every penny as we never would have found a bus home on a Sunday.
Did we enjoy Luxembourg ? Yes we did . It was a wonderful way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon in a city which was preparing itself for its Victory in Europe Celebrations.
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kangaroojack
The Ts
luxenbourg
Hi JenGog, What a great blog, I usually put the blog title in at the top, but it would take ages so I just didn't bother this time. Stay safe and enjoy your travels, Kangaroojack will be reading your blogs if you don't mind. (Kj) Kangaroojack