Sunday & Monday, July 17th-18th - Luxembourg

M and V both had the next couple days off and had a hard time figuring out exactly where we should go since they’d already had a lot of visitors and done all the regular touristy places more times than they’d like to count.  After much deliberation, they came up with Luxembourg, a country that none of us had yet been to and were unlikely to hit in the future.  So we packed up the car and headed out.

A word about Luxembourg: it is a teeny-tiny country, only 999 square miles, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany.  It is the only place I have ever been where we will comment, “That was so French!” and then move to the next shop and remark, “That was so German!”  The lady at our hotel spoke to us in German and then told us the numbers for the security code in French.  They have the highest GDP per capita, which means that everything there is a tad expensive.  It is ruled by a Grand Duke and Luxembourg is his grand duchy.  I don't know why that's funny, but, well, duchy.

When we arrived in downtown Luxembourg City, we hunted down the tourist information office.

*SuperNova Travel Tip:  Seek out the tourist information office first thing.  The people there generally speak English and will provide you with a city map which is infinitely useful.  Keep an eye out for a square sign (often blue) with a lower case “i” which means “information.”

The lady there gave us a map to do the Wenzel Walk (a self-guided walking tour), told us the open hours of the casemates, and we set off to find lunch. We decided to do a quick lunch (eating at a restaurant in Europe can take hours), so we found a Quick and popped in.  Quick is a Belgian fast food chain that is very similar to McDonalds or Burger King, except that they prefer not to “have it your way.”  All their burgers come with cheese, and once, in France, I ordered a burger without cheese that practically stopped their entire operation. I received my sandwich after everyone else in my party had finished their meal.  So today I turned off the picky and had a cheeseburger.  I feel I should note that in Germany, Luxembourg, and a number of other countries, they will charge you for ketchup (or mayonnaise, if you’re in Belgium).

After lunch, we headed for the Wenzel Walk.  The sights along the Wenzel Walk were lovely and many a picture was taken.  The self-guided tour was poorly marked (they prefer the UK approach to signage) and involved looking at the map, looking at the tiny picture of the sight, seeing if it matched what we were looking at, and then me reading the snippet of history included in the brochure which was written, in terms of interest, at driver’s manual level.  We did come across a “Second Hand Food & Drinks” sign, which is only worth mentioning for the mental images.

When we figured that we probably finished the tour (we're pretty sure we made it to number 15), we went back to the beginning and made our way to the Bock Casemates, “14 miles underground defensive passageways.” You had to pay to get into the casemates, but only 3 euro per person.  If you like long tunnels that look largely the same (not all of them were underground and there were lots of open spaces, so fear not, claustrophobics) dotted with the occasional cannon, then the casemates are for you!

Afterward we all felt the need for refreshment, fueled by the memory of a place we passed earlier called the Chocolate House.  The Chocolate House, located directly across from the Grand Duke’s Grand Palace, was clearly very popular, as it was crazy busy.  V grabbed a table outside while the rest of us went in to scout out the treats.  Apparently the Chocolate House’s claim to fame is the hotchocspoon - a wooden spoon stuck in a block of chocolate, of which they have 75 flavors.  You stir your hotchocspoon (I had mint, M had chili, V had caramel rum) into a steaming hot cup of milk until you have delicious hot chocolate.  That was the perfect treat since the weather was overcast and windy.  After some serious contemplation, we decided that the best choice to accompany a huge mug of melted chocolate would be a massive piece of cake. Mc and I had tiramisu cake and we regret nothing!

Our hotel was actually located in Vianden, located on the Our River in the Our Valley (Luxembourgers seem a tad possessive).  This was a neat little town in northern Luxembourg, famous for a beautiful castle from the middle ages.  As we parked, we noticed a lot of people streaming down the street towards town.  So, we unloaded the car and headed that way to see what was up.  We wandered around town for quite a while, but we spotted no one.  So we got dinner and headed back to our hotel.  Once in our hotel, I noticed that the beautiful Celtic charm had fallen off my new necklace.  We scoured the hotel, and the next morning all three of us looked in the street, but with all the wandering we did the night before and all the cobblestones, it was pretty much a needle-in-a-haystack situation.  So I now have a lovely silver chain from Scotland.  (But I’ll still cherish the memories forever.)

The next morning, we opted out of the breakfast option of our bed and breakfast (only an extra 8 euro per person!) and headed to a bakery.  This time we saw people streaming up the road.  We never appeared to be going the right direction.

*SuperNova Travel Tip:  Utilize bakeries!  Hmm?  I’ve already given this tip?  Have you done it yet?  Then I haven’t mentioned it enough.  Bakeries are easy (just point to what you want), have coffee (for those who need it), have sandwiches (when you want a quick lunch), and are cheap (even in Luxembourg).  Go to a bakery.

After breakfast, we walked up to Vianden Castle and discovered it was one of the few places you can’t bring a dog, which was odd since it was largely outside and made of stone.  (Did I mention J-dog was with us?  V’s dog, J, can’t stay home alone overnight, and Europe is pretty dog-friendly, and J-dog had always wanted to see Luxembourg, so into the backseat she jumped.)  V and J-dog went for their own private excursion while M, Mc, and I went exploring in the castle.  This was Mc’s first inside-a-castle experience, which is always a good one.  After a while in Europe, you start to get a little history-jaded (oh, is this castle only 500 years old?  Ho hum . . . Meanwhile, at home the oldest building is 150 years old), but Mc wasn’t quite there yet.

After the castle, we walked back into town for a quick lunch.  There were not a lot of restaurant options, but we found a great place that I’d love to recommend if only I’d written down the name.  M and Mc feel it was called “Peter something.” (Further research has found that it was the restaurant at Hotel Petry.) They made pizza and the sign over the door had a painted picture of two faces that were very similar to Mario and Luigi, except sort of a zombie-greenish color (which put me off at first, but the others convinced me to go in).  They have traditional fare in addition to pizza, but they also have flammkuchen, which I highly recommend trying.  It’s like a German version of pizza - the dough is rolled out very thin and they put cheese and other stuff on top, but no sauce.  Mine had onions and leeks, M’s had onions, leeks, and bacon.  They are huge and very tasty and a nice alternative to potatoes (if you’ve been in Germany awhile, you’ll eventually want an alternative to potatoes).

The drive home was uneventful as we said good-bye to the German-French Luxembourg and J-dog passed out on my lap.  Seemed like a good idea . . .