Luxembourg - Into the Grand Duchy!! (8 - 11 Jun 08)

The next part of the A-B-Lx tour leads to Luxembourg, a curious mini-nation (Europe's 3rd smallest country?) bordering Belgium, France and Germany, so it's an odd mix of Luxembourgers speaking Dutch, French and German. Though small, the capital, also known as Luxembourg City is a wealthy nation, as attested to the presence of many EU banking institutions, as well as some of the banking interns that I met at the youth hostel. (therefore it's very similar to Singapore in that aspect...keke :p)

If you asked what I remembered most about Luxembourg, it's a few things.

1) The way the city cuts into the valley and plateaus such that at times I thought I was overlooking Minas Tirith in the Lord of the Rings, which means the route around the city was full of slopes, uphills and tiring climbs....Rocks, walls and stone!

2) The very very hot weather here....for the first time throughout in Europe, it was summer at around 28 deg C and after experiencing a few months of winter and spring...it's bloody hot!

3) The very friendly people whom I met at the hostel. There was this German guy who oriented me about Luxembourg, taking me around up to the Kirchberg and encouraging me to visit the Musee d'Art Moderne Grand Duc Jean (or MUDAM for short), these 2 spaced out American dudes who can't stop talking about "space cakes" from Amsterdam and ended up being poked, this really quiet Korean girl whom I had dinner with a few times at the hostel, a chem engineer from Brazil who was on holiday and shared his passion for travel with me (Iceland for 2 weeks solo anyone?), this group of crazy people who camped at the hostel bar every evening to watch the Euro Cup. Yeah and so my evenings were basically spent watching the Euro Cup and chillin with the people there. It's odd that I see quite a number of banking interns, students studying here all staying at the youth hostel instead of renting places even though they are staying for a few months. Heard it's cheaper and kinda like a norm like tt to stay at the youth hostel.

Onwards to the Lux. Summer countryside sights along the way


The Grand Duchy with its proud colours of red, white and blue

And a 15 min trip to the Youth Hostelling International hostel where I boarded the bus, dropped off a few stops earlier thanks to the clueless bus driver and ended up trekking up and down slopes with my backpack. And it's no joke as I discovered that Luxembourg has quite a tough terrain to walk, with some of its major roads at a steep angle, as well as interesting short cuts to get to higher ground.

In any case, I was just glad that I finally reached the hostel in one piece. And luckily, there's this very recognisable landmark, the arched viaducts, so the next time I wldn't get so lost heading back here

Heading straight up to higher ground to the Kirchberg, led by my German friend. The Kirchberg is the highest plateau overlooking the whole city and is where the modern buildings are, together with the financial district. Not a whole lot of interest there as it was a Sunday so the whole Kirchberg looked pretty dead, but main points of interest at this higher ground were Fort Thungen and the MUDAM.

Fort Thungen


An iconic Spanish turret. Can see quite a few of these popping out across the landscape if you look around in the Lux

Here's another one, from higher position, with a view of the city

Into the network of fortifications


The MUDAM behind the fort, it's a sudden switch of ancient fortifications to modern buildings still under development in what is known as the financial district of the Lux

This pic shows that the financial district is neatly tucked behind the forts on higher ground

Blocks of offices and other modern architecture awaited me, and given it was a Sunday, the whole plateau was pretty deserted


Colours of the EU

Other views of the city from another angle



More Spanish turrets



Shots overlooking the Grund, and basically the perfect spot for catching a panorama of the city. It's also here where one can see the remnants of the ancient fortifications, the Bock Casemates, the Wenceslas Wall, how the city really cuts and built into the valley and truly the feel of "Minas Tirith" :p

























At the lower Grund levels...



...past narrow and sloping streets...



.....to reach the Rham plateau


This is really interesting. There's even an elevator built into the cliff that takes one from the lower Grund level to the topmost part of the city (not as top as the Kirchberg though....that's another plateau liaoz)




Loads of short cuts and pathways to go to different levels


And on the other side of town...the city overlooking the forested Petrusse valley




The Three Towers

The Moorish style Palais Grand-Ducal, built in the 1500s during Spanish rule

And a fitting end at the Place Guillaume II, where there was this huge Portuguese festival going on. Portuguese? For a while I felt I was momentarily at Portugal although I didn't have the chance to go there, but I was informed that Luxembourg has a strong Portuguese community by the guys back at the hostel

For the entire 2 albums of photos, go here and here