Oct 2 - Luxembourg

Today dawned overcast and with ample evidence of rain overnight. Someone at breakfast said that he had gone to the upper deck with its carpeted surface. He declared it to be “squishy”.

Promptly at 8:30 a.m., two buses left for Luxembourg - this would be the fourth country of this tour after the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. The other options for today were to do a walking tour of Bernkastel, our docking town, or a trip to Trier. For those of you who don’t know - I worked for Dofasco in Hamilton for over 36 years. About 2006, Dofasco was bought out by Arcelor who was in turn bought by Mittal Steel. ArcelorMittal Dofasco is now part of the largest steel company in the world. ArcelorMittal’s headquarters is in Luxembourg and I hoped to be able to see it, hence our choice of excursion.

Our guide for the trip to Luxembourg and for a walking tour of the city of Luxembourg was Jens - hands down, the best guide we have had on this trip, and in the top few of all the guides we have ever had. The country of Luxembourg, founded in 963 A.D., covers 998 square miles (making it the 20th smallest country of the world) and has a population of about 615,000. It is one of the wealthiest countries in the European Union - as evidenced by its high salaries and astronomical rents and housing prices. Its main industries are banking/international finance, steel production and EU government and administration. Three European cities offer very favourable tax structures (Dublin, Amsterdam, Luxembourg) which have lured hundreds of companies such as Amazon to establish headquarters there. The main languages of Luxembourg are French, German and Luxembourgish, a sort of German/Dutch amalgam. Many Portuguese, Italian and Spanish immigrants came in the 1960s to provide much needed building and trades expertise. The unions today wield very strong power - all the construction (and there is plenty of it) in the country grinds to a halt for four weeks in the summer when all the workers go back to their heritage country for a visit. The other big groups in Luxembourg are bankers and lawyers - there are thousands of each.

The drive to Luxembough was lovely - beautiful hills covered in grapevines, trees and bushes adopting their autumn colours of gold and red, the Moselle River wending its way lazily through the valley and pretty villages along the way. And lots of campers/caravans/trailers.

The City of Luxembourg is one of the four officials capitals of the the European Union. The others are Brussels, Frankfurt and Strasbourg. It is the seat of the European Court of Justice, the highest judicial authority in the EU. The City of Luxembourg with its old quarters and fortifications was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994 due to the exceptional preservation of the vast fortifications and the old city.

During our access into the city, we drove through the banking sector and the judicial centre. Both are full of interesting buildings, most built in the last 30 years.

After our walk around the City of Luxembourg, Doug and I voted it "the prettiest city that we have visited", beating out strong contenders such as Paris, Rome, Vienna, Venice and Amsterdam. Its setting down in a deep valley and abundant green spaces, coupled with its old world architecture helped it to win our vote. The city suffered bad damage back in the 1500s when all the wet gundpowder that was being dried out got hit by lightning, but fortunately escaped damage during WWII. Jens took us to the Cenotaph, Cathedral of Notre Dame (also known as Church of Our Lady Comforter of the Afflicted), Luxembourg Fortress, the Grand Duke’s Palace, the old Medieval section of town, the main market place and to a lookout point dubbed, “the most beautiful balcony in Europe.” How true - the views of the city were spectacular.

The threat of rain had disappeared and the sun had come out by this time. We had about an hour of free time, so with map in hand, Doug and I set off to find the ArcelorMittal headquarters - success!!! See the pics when I finally get them to upload. The is the new headquarters - the old headquarters were in a fabulous old building down the street. Doug and I have put Luxembourg on our “must come back again” list of cities. It’s a pretty, unhurried, walkable city full of history and culture. We highly recommend it. Not sure what the hotel room prices are like though…..Read more