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Luxembourg Long Weekend, 2024
  • Laurie Bowden

Luxembourg Long Weekend, 2024

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  • Permulaan perjalanan
    30 Ogos 2024
    Laurie BowdenLuxembourg Long Weekend, 2024Pengembara

    Exploring Luxembourg City

    30 Ogos 2024, Luxembourg ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C

    After a relatively early morning flight, I arrived today in an unbelievably rainy Luxembourg! Fortunately, I'd packed my trusty backup umbrella. Unfortunately, all the clothes I brought with me were shorts and T-shirts!

    After taking the bus from the airport (all public transport here is free) and hunkering down in my hotel (yes, not a hostel - I'm moving up in the world!), I ventured out to explore the city once the weather had cleared up a little.

    Luxembourg City is quite a unique capital on two counts - it is incredibly green and unusually vertical. The city is divided between broadly two layers - a fortified old town on the top of a hill and a number of picturesque suburbs beneath it. There are also several impressive bridges connecting the old town to the surrounding hills, crossing over the buildings in the valley beneath. Walking around, the city is very clean and has a nice ambience to it - many of the pedestrian thoroughfares are equipped with speakers playing pop music (Texas Hold 'Em by Beyoncé seems to be a particular favourite) and there are numerous nice-looking pubs and restaurants with outdoor seating lining the streets.

    My biggest struggle so far has been the language (though naturally everyone here speaks English). All the place names look German, the main language I see on signs and overhear is French, but the official language is Luxembourgish. I've tried to speak French a couple of times today but the person I've been speaking to couldn't speak it. Unfortunately I suppose I'll resort to English here in the capital but I look forward to seeing which languages are spoken in other towns around this tiny country.    Baca lagi

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  • Laurie BowdenLuxembourg Long Weekend, 2024Pengembara
    1

    Bock Casemates

    30 Ogos 2024, Luxembourg ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C

    The Bock Casemates are a network of underground caverns beneath the surface of Luxembourg City, excavated in the 17th century when the Spanish ruled the Low Countries. At their peak they extended for 23 kilometres and were designed to protect the city from invading armies. The caverns were so large that they could conceal entire garrisons, and even today the cliffs that surround the city are dotted with excavated windows from which Luxembourger forces would fire cannons at opposition armies from an almost impenetrable position.

    The caverns have been used as a defensive bastion during numerous campaigns throughout history. For 8 months throughout the Siege of Luxembourg (1794-95) during the French Revolutionary Wars, Habsburg forces sheltered themselves in the casemates to protect themselves from the French invasion. Later on, during the World Wars, the tunnels had the capacity to shelter 35,000 civilians from aerial bombardment.

    There are even rumours that the mythical Melusina, who allegedly married Count Siegfried around the founding of Luxembourg City in 963, occasionally surfaces in the well of the Casemates. When the two wed in the 10th Century, they did so under the condition that Melusina be permitted to be left totally alone each Saturday. When the Count eventually felt compelled to follow Melusina one Saturday, he discovered a disturbing secret - his darling wife was in fact a mermaid! On the day he followed her, she spotted him spying on her and so swam away into the depths of the river Alzette, and is still occasionally spotted frolicking in the rivers that cross Luxembourg to this day...    Baca lagi

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  • Laurie BowdenLuxembourg Long Weekend, 2024Pengembara

    Day trip to Trier

    31 Ogos 2024, Jerman ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    After an unsuccessful attempt to buy tickets to see the newly-reunited Oasis this morning, I caught the train from Luxembourg to nearby Trier, the oldest city in Germany.

    Stepping out into the second German city I've visited, the linguistic ambiguity of Luxembourg felt well and truly behind me - in fact the language I've seen most often here aside from German has been Latin!

    Trier was the Roman Empire's most important outpost in the north of the empire - it was the seat of one of the emperors during the Tetrarchy and for a time was home to Emperor Constantine, the man who converted the Roman Empire to Christianity. The legacy of the Roman Empire is still very visible today in the sheer number of Trier's most prominent sights - the Porta Nigra, Kaiserthermen, Konstantin-Basilika, Barbarathermen and Römerbrücke are all Roman structures, many of which have been in continuous use to the modern day.

    After the fall of the Roman Empire in the West, Trier maintained its prominence as an electorate in the Holy Roman Empire, and is also notable for being the birthplace of Karl Marx, whose former house is now a museum (which charges an entry fee, naturally!)

    The city has a lively feel, particularly in the Altstadt. Like many cities in this part of the world, the streets are clean and dotted with public fountains dispensing drinkable water. There are plentiful green spaces and the city is filled with cyclists and pedestrians. For lunch I had a Zummerflammkuchen, a summer-themed twist on Flammkuchen. Literally translated as "pie basket in the flames", it's effectively a pizza with crème fraîche or fromage blanche instead of mozzarella, native to the Rhineland-Palatinate and Alsace-Lorraine.    Baca lagi

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  • Laurie BowdenLuxembourg Long Weekend, 2024Pengembara

    Echternach

    1 September 2024, Luxembourg ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    Today's adventure is a trek in the Müllerthal region, known as "Little Switzerland" here in Luxembourg.

    The 13½ km hike begins in Echternach, the oldest city in Luxembourg. Centrally located in the city is a 7th Century Abbey, the Basilica of St. Willibrord.

    It's a quaint little town on the German border (though I still hear a fair amount of French around so I still don't know what language to speak when I interact with someone!) The main street is lined with outdoor terraced restaurants which beckoned welcomingly to me as I approached after the hike. Eventually I settled for a little tapas bar to recuperate and rest my legs, which served an Echternacher beer - I reckon even Harry won't have tried that before!    Baca lagi

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  • Laurie BowdenLuxembourg Long Weekend, 2024Pengembara

    Müllerthal

    1 September 2024, Luxembourg ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    Since I'm in a Catholic part of Europe, I thought it would probably be best to plan an agenda for Sunday which wouldn't rely on any buildings necessarily being open. Taking inspiration from the German stereotype, I decided to go for a hike in Müllerthal.

    Müllerthal is known as Luxembourg's "Little Switzerland", so I naturally want there with high expectations. While Müllerthal is undoubtedly a very pleasant part of the world to visit, I'm not sure it resembles Switzerland's towering mountains and pristine blue lakes. What Müllerthal does have, however, is a lush forest interspersed with a plethora of curious rock formations.

    The hike was long but not too difficult, and I took great pleasure in overtaking several German hikers, for whom Sunday hikes were clearly a common pastime. The highlight of the hike was a wooden outlook which offered a spectacular view of the surrounding Luxembourg countryside. The photo unfortunately doesn't do it justice but it was a very impressive sight 10 km into the hike.    Baca lagi

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  • Laurie BowdenLuxembourg Long Weekend, 2024Pengembara

    Vianden

    1 September 2024, Luxembourg ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    The final stop on my long weekend in Luxembourg is Vianden. It's getting late in the day on a Sunday so it's only an hour-long stop off, but the key attraction is an enormous cable car that reaches to the top of the hill overlooking the quaint town and impressive castle that towers above it.

    Dad would NOT like the cable car - aside from a rollercoaster-style metal harness, there is nothing attaching you to the car and if anyone struggles to get in or out of the car at either of the terminals all the cars midway along the cable stop abruptly and hover above the ground/river/steep hillside below you!

    The views at the top were great though, showing the village, the castle and the surrounding countryside at their very best in the late afternoon Luxembourg sun.    Baca lagi

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    Tamat perjalanan
    2 September 2024
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