|
Well I finally made it to Luxembourg. I went on Sat Jan 29th, which was a marathon day of travel. We were a group of three, myself, a guy on my floor (the Ethiopian who tried to go to Luxembourg with me in December - see the Trier story), and a Romanian girl. We left Karlsruhe at 6:50 AM and headed for Trier, just like the last time. And, just like the last time, we had a passport check on the train. This time we had our passports with us so there was no problem. Unlike last time, we were not checked at the station in Trier when we arrived there, nor on the way back. The one check on the train on the way there was our only check of the day. We were NOT checked on the train from Trier to Luxembourg (i.e. when we crossed the border), nor were we ever checked in Luxembourg. This made me realize that the cops in December had misinformed us, and that we could have just gone to Luxembourg in December as well. Anyway in Trier we got on a train to Luxembourg; we arrived there around 12:30 PM. We got a map of the city at the train station. At this point we had six hours to spend in the city. I don't know how many people live in the city, but there can't be many as the entire country of Luxembourg has maybe 400 000 inhabitants. In the towns near the German border they might speak some German, and in the North I think they speak some Flemmish (Belgian influence), but in the city of Luxembourg (and as far as I know in most of the country) they speak French, and pretty much only French. This meant that I had another chance to practice my French. 
Using our map, which had the sites worth seeing labelled on it, we spent the first few hours walking around the perimeter of the old part of the city, following the old city wall. In the Church of Our Lady (shown here) I read about the history of the city and the country. At different points in the past Luxembourg has been controlled and/or occupied by the French (in particular Napoleon), the Spanish, the Austrians (the Hapsburgs?), the Germans, and other nations as well. It's quite surprising then that the little country is still independant today. 
I forget what the significance of this flame is. Maggie (from Romania) is in the right of the picture. 
The remains of the fortress in Luxembourg were quite impressive. Below the city wall, which at some points is high upon a cliff, is Grund, the lower part of the city. 
Each of the former occupants of Luxembourg have in some way left their mark. Here is one of two or three small Spanish turrets (guard towers). 
After a few hours on the edge of the city centre, we went into the centre, most of which is a pedestrian zone. We went by the Royal Ducal Palace, which has an armed guard, just like in Copenhagen (mind you in Luxembourg it is a lot smaller). At the bottom of the picture you can barely see a guard behind the gate. 
Unfortunately it was cloudy all day, and at some points it rained too. We also checked out a museum of culture/heritage. I also managed to find a hat much like the one I lost at Oktoberfest (see the Oktoberfest story). It was only $2 Cdn! They use Belgian Francs in Luxembourg, but they refer to their prices in Luxembourg Francs. I don't know why because there are no Luxembourg Francs, the cash they use is always Belgian Francs. $4 Cdn is about 100 BF (Belgian Francs). Or, if you are in Luxembourg, it's about 100 LF, which of course is just 100 BF!?! Near the end of the day we found this guy, dressed up as Charlie Chaplin. 
I took this shot later on the way back to the train station. 
At 6:30 PM we had to get on a train back to Trier, and from there we had to take four more trains to reach KA at 12:45 AM Sunday morning. Altogether we spent about ten or eleven hours on the train and about six in Luxembourg! We used a cheap "Weekend ticket" so it cost us about 35 DM each. Had we used a faster, direct train we would have spent less than half the time on the train but probably at least 100 DM each to get there, so it was worth it. I had made a lot of sandwiches for the day so we always had something to eat on the train and in Luxembourg and we didn't have to buy any food. Back to the Main Page - Zur�ck zur Hauptseite |