Luxembourg

Now that school is out I can post about our trip to Luxembourg! WE LEFT THE COUNTRY! WAHOO!!

Less than a three-hour drive from Brussels, Luxembourg City, the capital of Luxembourg the country–not to be confused with the bordering Belgian province of Luxembourg–is a great weekend trip. Memorial Day weekend was the first warm, sunny weekend in 5,000 years, restaurants are recently reopened, and everyone seemed pleasantly interested in the world around them.

Eloise observed some lazy pigeons waddling around on our way to the big ship playground in the park. “Why don’t they have any hands?” she asked as they bobbed their heads at each other. Isaac and I thought that was hilarious.

We started our time in Luxembourg with a visit to the American cemetery, then checked into our tiny, gross-bathroom fail of a booking.com room. We walked through the Place des Martrys and over the Adolphe Bridge to the playground in the Parc de Monterey, where we had ice cream and tea. Then we wandered over to the Place Guillaume main square, which was under construction, and wound our way through the city’s colorful streets. The kids were suprised it looked so different from Brussels—pastel houses, slate roofs, white stone, more French than Dutch certainly. Everyone was speaking English. Everything was clean and nice (except the room). There were lots of Americans daytripping from bases in Germany. We walked along the city walls and found something to eat and boogied back to the regrettable room. Breakfast at Kaempff-Kohler the next morning was the kids’ highlight of our time in Luxembourg I think—the hot chocolate was fantastic. We ordered breakfast and got the jitters-inducing petit-dejuner of fresh orange juice, a croissant and coffee. Delicious!

“I’m actually really enjoying Luxembourg,” said Eloise. A chatty bee keeper at the farmers’ market in the city center was happy to chat. He spoke English, French, German and Luxembourgish and waxed poetic about his lovely city. We bought Luxembourgish honey and honey liqueur, German bread, cheese and fruits and walked over to the city walls. These ramparts were never conquered, and it’s easy to see why. Down inside the Bock Casemates was unfortunately still closed for Covid, but we found a tree and a bench and ate lunch overlooking it all. The kids climbed the tree and talked to a stranger who was already up there. We descended to the old city and followed the Chemin de la Corniche along the Alzette river to the Stierchen Bridge, where the kids entertained themselves throwing rocks into the water for a long time. This was great. Around this time we were all kind of tired of wandering around so we got coffee and ice cream, took the metro to our car, and spent the evening driving through the Valley of the Seven Castles.

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Here is a fun legend of Luxembourg:

“One day, Count Siegfried was walking on the banks of the Alzette when when he met a princess more beautiful than the day. This gorgeous creature was the nymph of the Alzette, named Melusina, and charmed the valley. Siegfried fell headlong in love with her and in no time had offered his heart and crown to the young woman, who accepted. Melusina, however, made one condition, which Siegfried had to promise to observe or lose her forever. On Saturdays, the count was to leave Melusina alone in her room and neither see her nor attempt to find out what she was doing. Siegfried agreed and the couple married. For years, they lived happily and had many children. One Saturday, however, Siegfried walked past Melusina’s room and, hearing a noise, looked through the keyhole. Imagine his horror when he saw her splashing about in a large pool, her body ending in a fish tail. Now that her true nature had been revealed, Melusina uttered a piercing cry and was swallowed up by the earth. Since then, the nymph of the Alzette has been sealed in a rock known as the Bock and only reappears once every seven years.”

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“I want to see the dungeons in the basement,” said Isaac.

“I would like to see, in different parts of the world, how they would like torture people,” said Eloise, striking terror into my heart. “That’s interesting to me.” Help us all.