Weekend in Luxembourg
Fall is here! I have a combination of cinnamon/clove/citrus essential oils going in the diffuser, apple spice tea steaming next to me, and a fresh coat of cranberry colored nail polish on my toes! We STILL don't have internet! Can you believe it? They came yesterday (at 7pm in the middle of dinner with company when they said they would be there by 4pm) and he got everything hooked up inside but said the outside line from Quix was not activated. So I called Quix and they said they would send a technician first thing this morning. Nobody came. I call a few times and finally get ahold of a technician who says he will come tomorrow at 10am. I am doubtful. To top it all off I just found out that 800 numbers are not free in Germany, so who know how much I have racked up on my bill calling and calling these people. It truly has been the biggest frustration about living here and I would not wish this on anyone. It is maddening the lack of control we have over the situation and how little their word means. Quix blames Telecom says it is Quix's connection that is bad and Quix blames Telecom. The ticker being it was hooked up with the SAME companies for the last family that lived here and they even asked to switch to account to our name because they knew what a pain it is but Quix would not let them. I never in a million years thought I would utter the following words but... I MISS COMCAST. I shall end there.
This last weekend Michael and I took a last minute trip to Luxembourg for the weekend since he had Monday off! We even took Roo bear! We booked a fabulous hotel right in the main square of old town- hotel Vaubon. It was not cheap, but there was a strange divide between really shabby looking cheap hotels and really expensive extravagant ones. So we found one of the few in the middle and the location could not have been better- even came with breakfast! Which consisted of a custom coffee order, an assortment of pastries, yogurt, juices, and the strangest part- deli meat and cheese. Apparently this is a very European thing to have for breakfast! Michael enjoyed it, but my pallet was just not ready for it. But the pastries- now those were divine!
On Friday we made the hour and 45 minute drive to Luxembourg and actually headed north to Mullerthal to hike some of the trails there! There are 3 main trails, each about 38km. Of course we were not up for something like that, but we found this great 10k hike on trail 3 called the W7. We followed that and had some really amazing views among the ever changing scenery. Huge rock formations, creeks, farmland, and lush mossy forest. Of course Ryder had a ball! He behaved himself for the most part, but bless him he is just a crazy little explorer and does not like being confined by a leash. We packed an awesome lunch for our hike, so halfway through we stopped and enjoyed a break. This was the only time on the hike we were cold! I think a combination of the higher altitude, open space and simply slowing down our bodies did it. Nevertheless, we ate quickly and were back on our way! After our hike we drove to Luxembourg City and had a bit of trouble finding parking. The deck the hotel told us to park in was full, so we diverted trying to find another lot close enough and ended up driving on a cobblestone street full of pedestrians that we are still not sure whether or not was actually legal to drive on! But it makes for a good laugh now, even if Michael was about to blow a gasket in the midst of it.
After finding a lot a few long blocks away and lugging all of our luggage and Roo to the hotel, we got settled in and showered up! Michael surprised me with a bottle of champagne he picked up because... why not? The hotel was kind enough to loan us a fancy bucket of ice and a few champagne glasses and we enjoyed a toast while doing a little people-watching from our window overlooking the Place Guillaume II square! That night we enjoyed an amazing Italian dinner in a cozy place we found near our hotel. We ended up not googling anything or looking at top restaurants on Trip Advisor, we just peeked in windows and read menus until we found something that looked yummy! And it did not lead us astray. We may have asked for the English menu like tourists, but I was proud that my order did not change once I had a full translation! After dinner I took Ryder for a quick walk to do his business for the night and we found a great planter full of bushes and plants we could both get into and he found a good spot to “make busy”. The next day on our walking tour I found out that we were in fact in the Mayors square… oops!
Saturday we enjoyed our breakfast at the hotel, took Ryder for a nice jaunt over to a bridge with a pretty awesome view and on the way saw some sort of military ceremony going on across the street at what we presume was a memorial having to do with WWII. As such a small country that has been occupied and claimed by many others over the years, they have very rich WWI & II history we learned about over the course of our visit. We started our day at the tourism office (in the same square as our hotel) to purchase the Luxembourg Card. It is a city pass into all of the hotels, some tours and attractions, includes public transportation… and only costs 13 Euro per person per day. SO worth it! We took our passes straight to the Luxembourg City History Museum where we learned about how this city came to be over the last thousand years! What is so interesting is how the landscape and topography of the city truly shaped it. What I found most interesting was how they had built themselves to be completely fortified with miles of underground tunnels (some of which we visited later) and military structures. However, when they were trying to gain independence from surrounding nations, part of the deal was destroying a great deal of their fortifications. So much of it is ruined, but what remains is extremely interesting. The city center is also situated up on a plateau of sorts with difficult access to the land below. For many years this was not very inhabited, but in recent years with the banking industry booming and bringing in young professionals and families, they have begun to settle in this smaller area called Grund. Roads have made them more accessible to each other, but the Grund is mostly pedestrian, with little access for cars. There are 2 huge elevators on either side of the city that can each hold about 25 people- I imagine these to be quite full during morning and afternoon rush hour.
After the museum we were off to the said fortifications, called the Boch Casemates. You climb down a series of stairs until you are inside the great rock terrain, looking out of small holes in the side covered in bars. It truly is amazing! The tunnels used to be traversed regularly by troops and their horses carrying supplies or getting from one side of town to the other undetected. As Michael and I were touring we did not realize there was a map of sorts so we just began to wander. There were other people around but we started towards the one portion where there ended up being few other people. We started down this TINY stone spiral staircase and I have to admit, I had my first bit of claustrophobia freak out. About 3 stories down I realized there was no end in sight and we were well into this thing. All of a sudden it felt very tight and I did not want to descend anymore not knowing what was waiting on the other end. I conveyed this much to Michael (trying desperately not to completely panic) and he just said “oh babe you are fine let’s keep going!) so we did. I swear that thing went down at last 5 stories. We popped out into more dark tunnels, this time much smaller, darker and with fewer openings to the outside. We went up another, shorter, spiral staircase that I HOPED would spit us back out to the real world, but it was a dead end. So we had to go back DOWN that one, through the tiny tunnels and back UP the staircase from hell. Let’s just say I have never been so happy to be standing outside in the fresh air! Needless to say if we ever go back, I will be happy to explore the larger tunnels, but will NOT be going up or down any terrifying spiral staircases.
After the casemates we joined a group of English speakers for a 2-hour tour of Luxembourg city. Since Michael and I had already explored to most of the places and visited the history museum we were vaguely familiar with everything but we learned so many interesting stories and a lot about the Luxembourg culture. One of my favorites was about the gold statue (Gelle Fra) at the top of the “Monument of Remembrance” built to commemorate Luxembourgers who fell during World War I. During WWII the Germans began dismantling the monument and so the Luxembourgers hid the gold lady to keep her safe. Unfortunately, they forgot where they hid it! It was not discovered until the 80’s! Once discovered they restored her and built a larger pillar for her to stand on and there she is today! The other thing I found interesting was the multitude of languages you could hear at any given time. Apparently most natives speak Luxembourgish, their now official language, but all of their legal and official documents are in French, but when you are taught in German in primary school. (?!?!?!) So many people living there are tri or quad lingual, which is CRAZY to me! But it all goes back to their neighbor countries and how they have interacted throughout history. After our walking tour we hit up the Chocolate House. Here they have what they call “Chocospoons” which are wooden spoons dipped in a hunk of chocolate and flavored with any number of things from caramel to lavender to various alcohols. There is also a sweet shop with small chocolates and huge hunks of cake for sale. Basically heaven. It was busy with tourists and locals alike and a Luxembourger even told me I had a “pretty accent!” That is not something I am used to hearing, but I’ll take it! From there it was a quiet evening of Roo jaunts, a cozy dinner overlooking another beautiful and lively square, and calling it a night early after being out and about all day.
Sunday we went to the Luxembourg American Military Cemetery where over 5,000 American soldiers are buried who lost their lives in World War II. It is a beautifully done memorial that highlights some of the key battles that won the war, but lost so many lives.
After the memorial it was back to grab Ryder and head home. We enjoyed a lazy day on the couch to reboot for a busy week ahead! The wifi was to be installed Tuesday so I needed to be at the house all day so I did not miss their appointment. They could not give me a time so I was scared to so much as pee or listen to music for heaven forbid I miss them! I even had a friend house sit for a few minutes that morning while I ran to the store! Then when they weren’t there by 4pm I called and they said he would come by 6pm. Then when he wasn’t there by 6pm I called and they said he could be there sometime in the next 6 hours. So I confirmed he could come as late as midnight and they said yes! It is just crazy. They guy finally did come around 7 but like I said, he pointed the finger back at Quix and told me it was their line that was not yet live. #firstworldproblems
In any case- we have had a great, busy week this week as Michael prepares to leave for Poland for training soon! It will be so sad to have him gone for a bit, but luckily my mom will be here October 25th!!! I cannot wait to have her in town and show her around!
