Luxembourg is an intriguing place. It is a small country, a duchy. [SIDE NOTE: I had to look up what that means exactly. A “duchy” is a territory, fief, or domain ruled by a duke or duchess. It is independent and sovereign. Luxembourg is the last independent duchy that exists and it is, technically, an independent grand duchy. Those granted the title “Duke” are purely ceremonial, except for the guy running Luxembourg.] It is located in the Ardennes Mountains and is simply gorgeous. We drove in with mist and marveled at its beauty and drove out in lovely sunshine with the same thoughts.
A friend had recommended that we take a slightly more circuitous route to Luxembourg City (our primary destination) that would take us by a couple of castles. A castle visit sounded like a lot of fun so we chose to visit the Chateau de Bourscheid. This castle is 1000 years old and situated on a “high, rocky bluff” overlooking the Sure River. The castle has had parts restored, not to the extent of Vianden (a real fairy tale looking castle that is on the eastern border of the country, but it was just too far out of the way for our day trip) but the view was why we chose it.
The ride there was half of the fun, we oohed and ahhed as we looked right and left and wound our way up the mountain to the small village that led us to the castle. The misty weather added to the mystery and soft beauty of the castle. We were virtually by ourselves, despite a car club lunch meeting in the main hall, slightly separated from the main castle. The cost of admission also provided an audio guided tour that gave wonderful information about the history, former owners and what the castle would have looked like and how it would have been used. We enjoyed it but both agreed that the view was what made it just so remarkable. We honestly sat there for awhile just looking in all directions. We also, however, needed to rest a bit given that there were a lot of stairs, and although a “high rocky bluff” sounds wonderfully romantic, it takes a touch of energy to get around.
After about an hour, we needed to press on in to Luxembourg City. Friends had piqued my interest with mentionings of the catacombs underneath the city, so we decided to try that first. After finding a good parking garage, we wandered our way down to the Bock Casemates, the catacombs. (Again, a city/country built in the mountains, or into a mountain, gives great views and great exercise.) The history of the casements is fascinating. Apparently, the Spaniards carved the honeycomb passages out in 1744 (I don’t know the reason why, presumably for strategic purposes because several of the rooms have cut-outs and cannons mounted therein) and then expanded over the years. Some of the uses of the casements have been: bakeries, slaughterhouses, housing soldiers, and in WWI and WWII they sheltered some 35,000 locals.
The housing of people in this space caught my imagination and I thought about it as we wandered through. There are areas that are wide and airy and extremely cramped areas with no air flow and a claustrophobic feel. Tremendous stairways seemed to be the theme of the weekend, with the width decreasing as the visits progressed. That means that these staircases were so narrow, uneven and steep that the possibility of passing was impossible. Naturally, the way up was also the way down, no separate entrance from the exit. Thankfully there were very few people visiting at the time so we only had to wait for a short while every now and then. Honestly, it might have been nice to have a few more people because we seriously struggled to find our way through the maze and to find the way out. We were starting to feel a touch trapped when we realized that we had walked past the exit gate. We had been bonding with the other few tourists trapped inside with us when we finally escaped. Whew.
Next, we wanted check out the Palais Grand-Ducal, where the royal family live. It is in the middle of town and apparently the royals here are have a “normality” that makes them popular with the citizenry. The guidebook said that in 1919, when the monarchies around them were crumbling, they had a referendum as to whether to keep the royals. The answer was a resounding affirmative and the royals have not been questioned since. I guess it helps that although they live in castles, the royal kids go to ordinary schools and are frequently seen out and about town (shopping, movies, etc).
After a few pictures, it was time for dinner. Now, you would think that there would be restaurants open on a Sunday evening in the heart of a major European city to feed the circling tourists, but no, we searched for at least 30-45 minutes in vain. (During this time, we came across the artistic comic of a baby crying violently, which D thought he was so clever by taking my picture next to it. Timing is everything and I did not appreciate that particular piece of humor. When a girl is hungry, don’t go poking her. It is a bit like jabbing at a shark circling the waters, not smart.)
FINALLY, an Italian restaurant opened and we gratefully jumped in and ordered. Now, I found it interesting that several times during the day, since our French is far from good, we had to use my German to communicate. I was surprised because Luxembourg City is much bigger and more tourist-visited than Mons but there seem to be more English speakers in Belgium than Luxembourg. That really surprised me. I was grateful for my German that got us what we needed (FOOD!). It was 5:30pm and we left around 6:30 and there still wasn’t another person in the restaurant. As a matter of fact, the cooks served us originally because the wait-staff wasn’t there yet – they trickled in as we were eating. Quite funny. Again, Europeans eat later, I must get used to that.
So, having quite enjoyed Belgium and Luxembourg, our next trip is to the Netherlands to visit friends in Amsterdam to complete the Benelux trifecta.
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