Luxembourg is a fascinating, tiny country that feels at once French and a little German and still distinctly its own, that being its unique self that's fed off its position sandwiched between those countries and Belgium. The buildings and signage are quintessentially French. The people seemed to be generally friendlier than the French, though, and more open to different language possibilities.
We parked in the lot next to the train station and sought out the TI kiosk inside. Drew was ready to speak French but the guy behind the counter immediately switched to English. He provided us with maps and told us to walk up Avenue de la Liberté, and we were off.
Unlike other places we visited, which had involved previous research and a guidebook in hand, we flew relatively blind in Luxembourg. I had absolutely no memory of any history lesson that involved it. Thus we pretty much just wandered, loosely following the map, and identified some buildings based on the map but other than knowing that we were in the Place de Paris or crossing the Pont Adolphe, we didn't know when or why anything had been built. Thus if nothing else Luxembourg made me realize how generally educated I am about places when I visit them. Thus in one sense I was at a disadvantage in another I was weirdly liberated, just admiring the scenery instead of thinking about it very much.
I think Luxembourg is the cleanest, wealthiest city I've ever visited. It stood in stark contrast to Sarajevo and Mostar, even in relation to very clean and wealthy German cities. It was clearly once a fortified military town; the walls and fortifications are easy to spot and the hills and valleys give you an idea of how defensible it must have been back when that was important. We spent the majority of our time either on bridges or walls or in beautiful squares and alleys. We had this crazy idea that we'd have a Luxembourgian (yeah, no clue if that's the right word) meal and were nearly knocked down by the prices, which were high by London standards to give you an idea. We ended up with a cafe dinner of extremely costly sandwiches, but considered that price as much for having a table at which to enjoy the ambiance of the square.
The saddest thing that happened on our entire trip was that I was trying to take a zoomed-in picture of gargoyles while juggling the umbrella and I dropped my camera, which fell with the zoomed lens extended onto the street and could not be salvaged. Thus this is the end of blog entries with photos, unless Drew catches up and lets me link to his.
