On Sunday morning, after locating Rodney’s second pair of missing sunglasses, we caught the bus in to Luxembourg City Centre. I think I managed to confuse the bus driver and many other locals later on, with my complete muddle of languages; I’m really not sure what I’m even supposed to be speaking in Luxembourg, it seems to be a complete mix of French and German. I’m trying to cover it with a ‘merci danke’ and half the time I’m just confused and tongue tied, even English is going out the window…!
When we got off the bus we walked along to the Place de la Constitution and hopped on board a petit train for a one-hour tour around the city. It is an unusual city and really hard to work out which direction you are heading in without a map and checking the sun’s direction. It’s a complete tangle of valleys and promontories; there are two rivers and numerous ruins of old forts and battlements and every so often you get a view across to the Kirchberg area where all the modern buildings housing bank headquarters, the Chamber of Commerce, the National Sports Centre and various political headquarters have been built.
After our bumpy ride around town, we wandered back to the areas that had looked interesting and roamed through the old part of the city to the Place d’ Armes. A huge TV screen had been set up in front of the Mairie and we wondered why so many people were engrossed in watching it. As it was lunchtime, we settled down at a seat outside Brasserie La Lorraine for a seafood lunch and asked the very multi-lingual waitress what was happening on the news broadcast. It turned out to be the coronation of the new King of Belgium, Philip I, after the abdication of his father King Albert II. So we ate our meal while listening to the cheering, flag waving crowds on the telly. When it finished, a couple of very good buskers continued the entertainment for us.
We followed lunch with a couple more hours of meandering and found loads more painted elephants, just like there were in Trier the day before, and I really like the way they brighten up little corners around the cities. We ate our ice creams for the day while walking under the trees down in the Vallée de la Pétrusse and through the pretty Park Ed Klein. Luxembourg really is a nice city, especially with the sun shining on its neat buildings, ruins and cobbled streets. Finally, with not a whiff of cloud in the sky and temperatures well in the thirties, we plodded back to the bus stop and returned to Eileen, to sit in the shade and relax in the very nice campsite for the rest of the day.
