Luxembourg City

in Pinmapple4 years ago

For those of you who don't know, every year in France, during the month of August, the entire business and industrial sectors of the country basically shut down and all of the residents pack up and go on vacation. The shut down doesn't affect anything related to tourism or basic necessities but overall it can seem as if the entire town you live in was suddenly abandoned in the night by its residents.

During this time its rare to see people in their yards or walking in the streets, shutters on peoples homes are usually closed and many small businesses lay in darkness. At times it can feel a bit like living in a ghost town.

Needless to say, August tends to be a good time to use up some of your vacation, so that's what we did. We went on vacation to Luxembourg and Germany.


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Though I was super excited to see Germany, the thought of going on another long trip actually gave me a bit of anxiety. We had just gotten back from Switzerland the week before and my wife and I were only just starting to feel normal from the lack of sleep we had lost on that little adventure. Our trips are never relaxing, not in the slightest. We tend to cram in as much as possible in a relatively short period of time. Its a great way to see large portions of a country but it always comes at the price of less sleep and a little more stress. On top of that I really felt bad leaving our cat with friends for another week. She was in good hands though.


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Anyway, I got over my anxiety and we made our way to Luxembourg early on a Monday morning. The pictures above and below show our trip route to give you an idea of where we traveled.


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As you can see from the zoomed out map, Germany is a very large country, much like France, so the drive time between stops was a little longer then we had experienced during some of our other adventures. Unlike Switzerland where our stops were never more than an hour apart, in Germany we basically traveled two hours or more by car each day. It was fine for us, just something to keep in mind when traveling in the country. I read on one travel forum that a person wanted to do the city of Cologne (Koln) as well as several small towns in the Mosel Valley in only one day... not possible. It certainly wouldn't be enjoyable at least.

Luxembourg City



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Luxembourg is a small European country nestled between Germany, Belgium and France. It has a population of just over 600 thousand residents making it one of the smallest nations in Europe. To put that into perspective, the city of Strasbourg has a population of over 800 thousand people, more then the entire country of Luxembourg.

But despite its small size, Luxembourg is one of the most prosperous countries in the world and for a while it even held the title of having the highest GDP per capita compared to other countries. The country mostly specializes in banking and finance (among others things) and overall is considered a major global player in that sector. Up until recently the country was also considered a "tax haven," which basically means that it was a great place for large corporations and wealthy individuals to store their wealth in order to avoid paying taxes in their country. Supposedly, new inquiries and money laundering laws are slowly changing that though.

Anyhoo...


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Overall, we found Luxembourg to be a very clean city. The old town sort of sits up on a cliff looking over a small valley. It has a large medieval wall that you can walk around on two separate pedestrian walking paths. They are marked along the way and offer an easy guide to follow. Located in the area shown in the photographs above are the old casemates caverns, which are 17th century defensive tunnels built into the rocky cliffs. They were closed because of covid when we went but I don't think we would have gone in though anyway. We were fine walking around the upper wall.


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The homes in the old city were quite luxurious in some places. Many were large and nicely decorated on the outside. I really liked the home in the photo below. I found the many small dormer windows to be really neat. You don't see that very often.


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We ate lunch in the main square of the old town. My wife had been craving a burrito for months so we stopped at a Mexican restaurant to see how they do burritos in Europe. Not surprisingly, they were completely different then the ones we get back home. They were good for sure, but they didn't satisfy her craving.

During lunch we were bombarded by a swarm of wasps that were plaguing any table with food or drinks on it. As soon as our food was set down on the table 20 or more flew over and landed on and in everything available. I'm not afraid of wasps but it was really off putting. I felt like one was going to get in my mouth anytime I took a bite of my food. It didn't detract from the meal or our trip in general, but it did make me want to eat fast and get the hell out of there.


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This fountain was located by the old church. I just thought it was funny. I feel like the sculptor or designer had a sense of humor that I can appreciate.


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And that’s it for Luxembourg. The next stops will be in the Mosel Valley Germany. Thanks for Reading


If you are interested in reading more about our trip I will be posting about it over the next few days. For the previous post click the link below. Strasbourg was actually our last stop on the trip but I happened to post about it first because...well I don't know why.

Strabourg ("Petite France")

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I understand there are checkmarks on your European list that need placing, but I feel you need to get off the autobahns more and take it easy. Driving and enjoying the scenery should be part off the experience and not a chore to get done.

Historic towns like Rothenburg o.d.T. can be found all over but you're rushing right past them. O.K., Rothenburg's history is densely packaged in a pretty, Disneyesque sort of way, while others may have more war wounds patched with "modern" buildings. Check.

Also, German autobahns really suck; they're stressfull due to the lack of a unifying national speed limit. So why subject yourself to that if there's no rush? My two cents - your mileage may vary. As long as you're having fun!

I agree with you. We are starting to realize that we prefer smaller towns over larger cities. Our trip in Germany was mostly small towns like the ones you are describing though and funny enough Rothenburg was one of our stops, probably our favorite overall. Lol.

Or am I misunderstand what you're saying? Are you saying I should avoid those towns because they are the mostly touristy or that I should check them out?

I agree that the lack of posted speed limits is a bit stressful. I feel like there is a good chance that I will be recieving a bunch of speeding tickets over the next few weeks because I never knew how fast I was supposed to be driving. I just tried to do what others were doing. Probably a bad idea hahaha

No, your route looked like too much autobahn and too little countryside for my taste. So I must have misunderstood.

The lack of a national speed limit means, there isn't one. So no worries about tickets. I'm saying, this is stressful because you only have a choice between getting stuck behind too many trucks @ 80 kph on the right and pulling left in front of a speeder coming at you with 200 kph.

The law states you must drive on the right unless passing. A center lane makes this doubly dangerous as many people ignore the "drive right" rule. You must have observed the craziness I'm talking about.

A general 130 kph speed limit like in France would mitigate that and make for more relaxing travel. No fucked-up BMW racers who try to force you over with flashing headlights and encroachments on the safety distance.

The missing general speed limit also leads to more local postings, which is unnecessarily confusing and prone to speed traps. Plus the poor state of repair in many places. Result: stress and accidents.

Okay, I understand what you're saying. A few of the routes we took were quite scenic but yes, many were on the autobahns for a lot of the drive.

I tried to go a consistent 130km like you said. But yeah, the folks who whizz by at 180km in a blur are wild. I'd be afraid of getting a flat tire and doing a flip over a gaurd rail at that speed hahaha

The city looks beautiful but deserted. I wonder if it's the covid effect?

It made me smile when I read how your wife craved for burrito. My husband and I craved for Indian cuisine while in France and spotted a good restaurant (though we asked for it to be extra spicy and the chef/owner made it as authentic as he could). For some reason, I associated Luxembourg with a story that I read when I was a child for its haunted castle.

The city wasn't deserted but I don't think there were many tourists when we went. It was a comfortable amount of people. It could have been the timing as well. We went on a Monday not a weekend so I'm sure that played a role. Its funny how old stories imprint an impression of a place. Places never seem to be as we pictured them in our mind though. At least not for me.

Ok I see. You've captured the city beautifully. I agree, places turn out to be different from the way we have imagined them.

Manually curated by ackhoo from the Qurator Team. Keep up the good work!

Thanks. I appreciate the support!

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