Number Twenty; Luxembourg

I’ll be honest from the start here. We didn’t book to go to Luxembourg on ‘purpose’, it was more because my friend accidentally scratched the tiny European country off her scratch map. It is an easy mistake. Luxembourg is one of the smallest countries in the world, smushed between France and Germany. To put it into perspective, it is a similar size to Rhode Island in the US or Dorset in the UK.

Our hotel was located in Kirchberg, which was one of the outer districts of Luxembourg City, but only a 10-minute bus trip to the city centre. Upon arrival, we sped through the quiet immigration hall and found ourselves on a bus to the hotel. If you know anything about my travel antics, then you’ll know that I’m all for utilising the cheap European public transport rather than paying for expensive airport transfers. You can buy a day ticket with unlimited access to the public transport for 4 euros! However, like Hungary and Norway, the bus drivers never check for tickets and none of the residents ever seem to show a bus pass or ticket which means that it is quite easy to get away without paying. We even tried to pay one of the bus drivers for a ticket, but he just told us to go through and didn’t charge us! The reliable buses and trams make the city very accessible and easy to get around.

Kirchberg was a quiet district when it came to people, there weren’t many houses or shops around anywhere. In fact, most of it was a construction site! This did make for some rude awakenings at 6:30am and a brilliant view of a half-built skyscraper from the hotel window. We decided to overlook this as we had picked the cheapest option for the hotel!

After dropping off our luggage in the room, we headed out immediately to make the most of the remaining daylight and began exploring the city. The city itself was incredibly clean, even the building sites were tidier than the ones back home! Our first stop was the Place d’Armes which is a town square located in the Old Town. It is lined with a variety of restaurants and shops and even has a bandstand in the centre which hosts concerts almost every evening, from heavy metal bands to choirs. We continued on to the Monument of Remembrance, otherwise known as Gelle Fra. It is a war memorial dedicated to the thousands of Luxembourgers who volunteered for service in the armed forces during the World Wars and Korean War. There was a funfair going on which led us to walk around the entire area with our mouths watering over the delicious smells of almost every type of food you can imagine. The fair was located in the area near the Monument which provided us with some excellent views of the ‘Cathedrale Notre-Dame’, which is the only cathedral in the whole country!

After a couple of hours of getting our bearings and snapping touristy photos, we headed back to Place d’Armes for some food. We decided to have a proper sit-down meal instead of opting for the funfair food for the first meal. Luckily, we were right in time for ‘happy hour’ which means that we got all of our cocktails for half price, and a good job too, as alcohol is definitely not cheap in Luxembourg.

We demolished a few cocktails and some Mexican food before having another explore of the city before sunset. The houses in Luxembourg all had light coloured walls and a darker coloured roof. They all matched with each other in an aesthetically-satisfying kind of way. We wandered down the pretty picturesque streets, stopping by at interesting spots along the way, including the Statue of Grand Duchess Charlotte and many of the other abstract sculptures which were abundant throughout the city.

We stopped by to admire the Cathedrale Notre-Dame before heading down into the valley of the Petrusse River which flows through the middle of Luxembourg City. Despite the river only being a few meters wide, it has carved a narrow yet deep valley almost dividing the city into two. The 70m gorges cut by the river are spanned by many bridges and viaducts, including the famous Grand Duchess Charlotte Bridge and the Adolphe Bridge. We walked down the steps from the Old Town into the valley of the Pretrusse river which has been transformed into a beautiful park which often makes you forget that you are in the middle of a capital city. The slopes of the gorges are incredibly steep and only able to be navigated by a series of steps which connect the East side of the city to the West. As we eventually climbed the final few steps up to the top of the Eastern Gorge, we were surprised by a dazzling sunset which lit up the buildings surrounding us. The clocktower of the Musee de la Banque stood out with its unique orange brickwork which was illuminated by the golden-hour skies.

We crossed the Adolphe Bridge to get a better view of the sunset before heading back across it so we could go on the pedestrian bridge underneath. The Adolphe Bridge is a unique double-decked arch bridge, the top deck is for the traffic and pedestrians, and the bottom deck is for cyclists and pedestrians. It gives you an interesting view of the stunning arches of the bridge but it’s hard to concentrate on the view when there’s a 42m drop below you!

After a brisk walk across the bridge, we headed into the Luxembourg City Municipal Park. The park itself takes up a significant proportion of the inner city, separating the Ville Haute quarter from the rest of the city. By this time, it was dusk so it was very quiet in the park, aside from a few groups of teenagers hanging around. We found a large pirate themed play park and naturally our 10-year-old selves came out as we explored, climbed and slid down the numerous slides before relaxing on the tyre swings. It was easy to forget that we were in a capital city as Luxembourg city is incredibly quiet. There aren’t many tourists anywhere and even the roads were empty, apart from the odd bus or two.

We began to feel the chill of the evening air so we decided to head back to the hotel, it had seemed like a very long time since we set off this morning, so we all deserved a good night’s sleep. Fortunately, we found the bus stop easily and didn’t have to wait long before the bus arrived to take us back to Kirchberg. Only two buses ran past our hotel but it seemed that they were the most convenient buses as they typically ran to every single area we needed to be, or needed to get back from.

Only a quarter of an hour later, we arrived back at the familiar building site surrounding our little hotel. The brand-new skyscrapers towered above the 10-floor building which was our hotel. It was definitely interesting to speculate what this place would look like in a couple of years once the bulk of the building work will be complete. The skyscrapers could be seen from every corner of the city, even if they were in the distance, so I can imagine that the view from the top of those skyscrapers will be incredible.

We got up bright and early to make the most out of our full day in Luxembourg City. Surprisingly, we even managed to get ready and out of the hotel by 9am! We decided not to go for the optional hotel breakfast, and instead get breakfast in the city centre as we explored. The trusty bus took us in under ten minutes to the Old Town which is renowned for its abundance of cute cafes and bakeries. Luxembourg is heavily influenced by the French as Luxembourg has adopted their language, parts of their culture and even their cuisine! We had a typical French breakfast of chocolate croissants from one of the many bakeries before heading back to the Municipal Park to find the iconic Luxembourg sign.

I didn’t even know that this sign existed. We couldn’t find it on Google or even on Instagram! It just so happened that we had spotted it on the bus that morning. The sign is similar to the I Amsterdam sign except there isn’t a massive crowd of tourists, in fact, we only met four other people who were taking photos, so we didn’t have to wait long for the sign to become ‘available’ for photos. It is located in the Municipal Park in the North near the Grand Theatre and it is very hard to miss once you know where it is!

As we were close to the centre of the shopping district, we decided to go shopping. I managed to put up with an hour of being dragged around shops before we resumed the sightseeing. The first stop was the Grand Ducal Palace which is the official residence of the Grand Duke of Luxembourg. It is essentially their version of Buckingham Palace but without all the high security, mainly due to the fact that Luxembourg is one of the safest countries in the world. They have two guards which march around outside the palace and partake in the ‘changing of the guard’ ceremonies.

We continued walking until we reached the top of the casemates. These are a series of underground tunnels which were built in the 17th century and are over 23km long in total. The defence passages wind their way around the walls of the city on many different levels, which gives Luxembourg the title of ‘Gibraltar of the North.’ We explored the top sections which include little caves which lead out onto a little opening overlooking the area below. The walls and casemates are all part of the Fortress of Luxembourg complex. Though most of it has been dismantled, it is still fascinating to walk around admiring what remains of such a massive structure. As the fortress is quite high up, it provides an excellent viewpoint and photo opportunity of the areas below.

At this point, we had got quite lost so we headed down into the valley and followed the path until we eventually found a steep footpath back to the top. After an agonizing half an hour, we made it back to the bustling centre of the city. We decided to head back to the hotel for a quick nap before going out for our final meal together in the Grund area of the city. The Grund District is known for its medieval architecture, scenic riverside promenade and local eateries. We went to one of the pubs which backed onto the riverside but unfortunately it was far too busy and we didn’t manage to get served for over an hour, so we decided to go to a restaurant next door. It was a lot quieter and the service was a lot faster, winner! We ate burgers and drank cider as we reminisced about the best parts of the trip and where our next destination should be.

For what may have been an ‘accidental’ trip with the purpose of solely visited to ‘tick’ another country off, it became a lot more than that. Luxembourg is a country that many people respond with ‘err where’s that?’ when you tell them that is your next destination. But maybe that’s the point. Sometimes you’ve got to wander off the beaten track and you never know; you may find yourselves a cool hidden gem in the middle of Europe like we did.

Luxembourg, you’ve been a pleasure and I couldn’t have asked for a better place to be my twentieth country.