Blogs from Luxembourg City, Luxembourg, Europe - page 11

Gudde Moien! As you probably realized from the greeting, I have left Germany. I'm now in Luxembourg (the world's last sovereign Grand Duchy) where Luxembourgish is the most commonly spoken language of the official three - French and German being the other two. Luxembourg is an amazing little country of less than half a million people. Despite its small size, there is nothing simple or even ‘quaint’ about Luxembourg. The architecture is massive and ancient, the city is well laid out, and the streets are filled with incredibly nice cars. (Not surprisingly, Luxembourg does have the highest GDP per capita in the world.) I saw the parliament building, which is right next to the Grand Ducal Palace, so I can now check this country off my list of world capitals I've visited. I also made the ... read more

Being two Eliza is obsessed with all things "baby" (or baba as she says). She likes to use baby forks and spoons. She loves pointing out the small cars ("Auto baba!") and this weekend we did the ultimate in European touring and went to a "baba country": Luxembourg! The best laid plans. We had ambitions to rent cars and do Luxembourg one day and the Netherlands another day so that our visitors could "pin" two more countries. However after wrestling everyone out of bed at 6am and packing up for our first day trip Jonathan and his father had the fun task of discovering that Hertz had overbooked car rentals across Belgium. We were able to salvage our day with a trip to Brugges, but it made the double country pin virtually impossible. After our long ... read more

Finally finished work and now I'm on holidays - Had a glass of crémant at the Shubbie on the place de glacis and despite having fallen and nearly broken my elbow on my way into the post office yesterday (my holidays flashed before my eyes!), that freedom feeling is beginning to sink in... I'm packed, Ida and Emma are packed - we have everything that we could possibly need - I think.... Our first stop tomorrow is Caracas from there we fly to Barinas at 8:00 am aprox then Ground transfers to Hato Cedral (3 hours) where we stay until the 6th of August off to Merida after that and then we do all the trekking part...finishing up in Los Roques until the 21st. Will try and keep you informed as we go along and I'll ... read more

We left Brussels in the late morning and took a 3 hour train trip to Luxembourg, the 3rd country of our visit. We didn't have to go far to our hotel after arriving as it was located directly opposite the station with a great view of the station buliding much to Ross's delight. After we had unpacked our stuff we walked in towards the main centre of old Luxembourg, located on the top of a hill after crossing a deep gorge. Unlike the other cities where we stayed there are no trams in Luxembourg and we could really notice the difference in traffic congestion. To enter the old city we crossed a bridge across the gorge. Luxembourg is the first walled city we have visited and many of the old fortifications still remain. As the fortifications ... read more

My first couple of days in Luxembourg have been quite nice. Unfortunately I have the memory of a small, irritating house fly and haven't been able to remember all the names of places I've been, but I do know that the first night we went to a town called Echternacht....I think. It was this delightful old town and we got these massive ice creams. When I say massive, I mean massive. They are in these huge martini type glasses with large heart shaped waffle cookie dealies. Luxembourg is apparently the richest country in the EU, and because of it have exceptional food and cars all around. Some of the cars are part of the interesting sites to see, and just like a boy, Tobias feels it is not only his duty, but privelege to point out ... read more