“Moien” Luxembourg City, LU

Aside from the unusually early morning, our train ride to Luxembourg was quite pleasant. Our tickets routed us through Metz instead of Paris, as we would have had to change not only trains, but stations as well in the big city. We rode for about 7 hours, which gave us lots of time for napping, Scrabble, and reading. I finished another Captain Alatriste novel, Purity of Blood, which was my reward to myself after The History of the Seige of Lisbon, which wasn’t nearly as good as the jacket cover synopsis had lead me to believe.

We arrived in the early afternoon, and caught a local bus from the train station to the stop nearest the Auberges de Jeunesse (that is, “youth hostel”) in town. We had booked a room here, after research which, though not comprehensive, was sufficient to determine that Luxembourg is, in general, very expensive. This hostel is not expensive though, so our private room was about 50€ per night.

Once we had checked in we took the 10-minute walk back up the hill in to town, and had a nice look around. One thing we’re noticing, having traversed quite far north is that the temperature here is significantly lower than, say, Montpellier. We’ve dusted off our long pants and jackets, and anticipate wearing them pretty frequently for the next while.

Luxembourg is a town built for fairy tales, with many a tall spire and worn stone turret.

The Old City is perched at the high point, and is truely old, since the city dates back to 963, while the valley contains a mini-village called the Grund.

We spent the next day and a half exploring these two areas as thoroughly as we could, but it’s fairly clear from looking at the map that we could have spent a couple more days and still found new territory. That said, it’s not really a big enough city to spend a week in, and after you’ve seen the “postcard highlights” there’s not a whole lot more to do here.

When checking in to the hostel we asked the desk clerk about the best spot for local food. He was not at all enthusiastic about us trying it out, so directed us instead to some Italian and French spots. Apparently even the locals don’t like the local food.

Our first dinner was had at the hostel restaurant, which has a nice menu, but also does a daily special that is pretty good value. Christina had a vegetarian lasagne and I had the meatballs and rice special. One of our lunches worth mentioning was at a place specializing in soups which we tried on the second day, with huge success. Though somewhat cafeteria-like on the interior, the food was flawless, and if we were here for more days I could easily see us return.

“Les Casemates” are a UNESCO World Heritage site, which we took the opportunity to explore. Basically a maze carved out of rock, they were built as a defensive feature, including bunkers, escape hatches, and cannon firing positions.

Not for the faint of heart, the tour requires a certain amount of agility, and tolerance for tight spaces and deep deep spiral staircases. It doesn’t photograph very well from the inside, but the air holes and cannon positions give some spectacular views of the town and valleys, and the cliff from which it is carved looks great.

Though only a quick visit, it has been very worthwhile, and we have enjoyed this brief diversion on our way to Paris.