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Published: June 20th 2006
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Lux Trainstation
Pretty stainglass window, gorgeous light coming through! Luxemburg. Boy, I am so far behind with the blogging. I went there over 3 weeks ago!
And here's my usual line...
My original plan was:
When I was still in Germany and planning my trip to Lux, I thought hm, it's not that big, looks like 20 miles across, wouldn't it be cool if I
WALK my way across the whole country??!! How many people can say they've walked across a whole country? Well, ok, my friend Ryan who walked from Florida to California, but he doens't count, he's probably crazy.
So with that in mind, I figured 3 days should be enough for me to walk across the country and when I get to the other end I can just catch a bus to come back. Pretty good idea, eh?
Then...
My revised plan became:
Ok, it doesn't look like I have enough time to walk across it because I wasn't able to get a ride to Luxemburg in time, and for cheap. Trains costs too much and with the rideshare/carpool I was only able to ride to Trier, Germany (close to
What I got for 60 Euros/Night
Bathroom ensuite, too. I liked it. Lux border) on the day the lady was driving, which was Saturday and not Friday. How about I rent a bike and ride across it instead? Yeah, that'll be it, with a bike I can probably do it in a day, 2 max!
What I actually ended up doing was:
So I rode with the rideshare lady to Trier for 10 Euros. That's a great deal. She dropped me off at the Trier Hbf around 6pm and said if there isn't another train into Luxemburg, feel free to give her a call and I can crash at her place. That was REALLY nice of her to offer. Earlier during the ride I had told her that the previous night I had to sleep in the s-bahn station, the hbf, and the airport b/c I had no place to stay, and so she was saying to me, hey, there's no need to sleep with the bums, you can come to my house.
Turned out that they run trains almost hourly into Lux city. So I buy a ticket for the next train. I ride in and arrive around 7.30 pm. I go to
My dinner
Everything was closed, good thing I came prepared! From left to right: Pretzels, calcium pills, trail mix, onion chips, water, and tea. information office to ask about the buses that are supposed to run to that little village near the eastern border where my hostel is, where I had planned to start my bike ride. And guess what the dude tells me. The buses had all stopped running, nothing more until the morning. No more buses after 7pm? I was in the capital city of a European country and there were no more buses. So I ask about trains. Nope. Town's too small, no trains. So I ask how far is it, maybe I can take a taxi. Well, it's about 25 km (13 miles?), taxi would be really expensive. Then I thought about renting a car, but that went out the window pretty quick.
Then my alternatives for the evening became:
1. Try to find a place to sleep in Lux City and begin next morning to the eastern front and then bike from there.
2. Catch a train that goes to another town somewhere else, closer to the borders (don't care which one) and stay in a hostel there.
3. Sleep in the Lux City hbf.
4. Catch the next train back to Trier and call the rideshare
lady!
Cutting a long and miserable story short, I spent the next 2 hours working on #1 and #2, running between the internet cafe and train station. I spent around 10 euros just on internet and phone calls, trying to find a place to sleep for the evening. All the hostels in town were booked solid, in fact, all the Luxemburger hosteling international hostels were booked solid, and the Trier hostel was booked as well, and there was nothing cheaper than 20 Euros a night. Around 10pm was the cut off time for me to decide if I wanted to go back to Trier. After that no more trains.
I decided against Trier because my pack was stored inside the Lux trainstation locker room and that place was already closed for the evening; if I go back to Trier, I would have to come back in the morning again to get my bag.
And I decided against sleeping in the train station because, contrary to my earlier belief, Luxemburg City is NOT paved with Gold and the trainstation is as skanky as they come. I was surprised at how small the whole place was and how
Look at what they are looking at
Everyone was photographing the guard who was standing in front of the Royal residence. many drunk, drugged, and homeless looking persons I saw hanging around there. Reminded me of San Francisco!
After I reconciled with the fact that I'll be shelling out big bucks for probably mediocre accommodations in Luxemburg City, I decided to take it easy on and walk around and see what's available. I ended up at a little hotel by the train station. Literally across from it. The rack rate was 65 Euros a night but the guy gave it to me for 60. How generous. It was a single, at first I was aghast at how danky it looked, but after about 5 minutes, hey, it was kind of a cute little place! No view, no nothing, but quiet and I appreciated the fact that the hotel tried really hard to be nicer than it really was. I had a little box of free soap and shampoo, a tiny little color TV, a big armoire, a creaky old bed with blankets that looked like they were handsewn... And I even got free breakfast. The place had character, I like to think, and the people who worked there were nice, so no complaints.
* * *
Whatever happened to my plan of biking across the country? Forget it. It was a 4-5 day weekend because of Whit Monday (or is it Whit Sunday? Anyway it's called Pfinngston in German) and almost everything was closed. And besides, I was already over budget for this country, not about to spend anymore.
I ended up doing the usual 1-day tour of Luxemburg like the rest of the tourists. I got a street map from my hotel, walked along the main street to the happening part of town (the train station area is not the happening part of town), and checked out the sights there.
Not much to say, it is a beautiful, expensive, little country/city, a lot of tourists, one McDonalds, everyone speaks French and I can only understand German...
I left Luxemburg in the late afternoon and headed back to Trier. I had made a reservation at a hostel for one night, I had no idea what I was going to do after that.
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Wendy
non-member comment
One day when you look back
on this whole experience it'd be just fun and laughs. You'll forget all about the skanky train station and looking for a bed at 9pm.