28 July ’05, Thursday.
“The Grand Duchy”…well, that’s Luxembourg…yep, and it’s a tiny country that is a big “tax shelter” as well. I guess for those that have something to “tax shelter”, this is one of the best. That isn’t all that Luxembourg is, or has to offer. There is the history that goes back to 963 when a Count Sigefroi (Siegfried) built a castle on the highest hill in this area. Since that time, the castle and the surrounding area has been over-run by at least 20 times in 400 years. Each time it was “besieged” it was knocked down and re-built until finally it was regarded to be the strongest fortress in Europe. It earned the nick-name of “Gibraltar of the North”. Well, I saw “The” Gibraltar in 1960, and we saw the “Gibraltar of Greece” last December, and now…we see “Gibraltar of the North”. This “Gibraltar” thing is big over here. Last night when we were making plans to catch the train into Luxembourg, we were expecting it to be raining. We had had a thunder storm with some rain earlier in the evening and again about 1 or 2am. When we finally made it out of bed (about 8am), it was a little overcast, but looked pretty good. By the time we had reached the train (about a 10 minute walk) at 10:20am, it was looking like it might be a hot one. As it turned out, it was a “hot one”. The temp was up and the humidity was even higher. When we arrived in town, we found the TI (Tourist Information), got our map of the city, found the locations of the internet café, checked out the “self-guided” walking tour, and we were off…to find Starbucks… What a surprise, the closest one was in Germany, so we had to find another coffee house to get this day started. That wasn’t as easy as it sounds, but to be honest with you, it was only because we (I) were too picky. When we (I) finally made our decision and ordered…it was a mistake, we should have stayed at the first place… You would think it would be easy… To many decision makers… Coffee taken care of, we headed over to the internet for an hour and a half, and then lunch. This time we made it much easier, we choose Mexican. She, a Taco Salad, Me, a Pollo (chicken) Quesadilla. Then, on a full tummy, and on a hot day, we start our “self-guided” tour of Luxembourg. We followed through the “old town”, down into the Petrusse River valley (this time of year, it’s about the size of a stream of water flowing from a water hose), under the wonderful and tall old bridge that was built in 1908, through the Citadel Gardens ( that also has the Quirin Chapel, a beautiful old church that was built right into the side of a hill in the 14th century), back up this steep hill (and I do mean steep !!!), and on and on…it was hot (had I mentioned that before?). Finally, we had had enough, and we found our way back to the air-conditioned train and the 12 minute ride back to the little village where we are camped. I really wanted to stay on that train for a few more hours, but that wife of mine got right upset. Back here, we settled for a couple cold showers, and a couple cold beers, and all that made it much better. I was feeling a little hungry, but she (my lovely), wasn’t, so I went over to the camp restaurant and ordered a spaghetti dinner for myself (she didn’t want anything…). When the order came out, there it was, 2 orders, now 2 HUGE orders of Spaghetti…we will be eating spaghetti for a week to come. Tomorrow…back down to France, and Epernay (in the Champagne district, with lots of samples…
“The Grand Duchy”…well, that’s Luxembourg…yep, and it’s a tiny country that is a big “tax shelter” as well. I guess for those that have something to “tax shelter”, this is one of the best. That isn’t all that Luxembourg is, or has to offer. There is the history that goes back to 963 when a Count Sigefroi (Siegfried) built a castle on the highest hill in this area. Since that time, the castle and the surrounding area has been over-run by at least 20 times in 400 years. Each time it was “besieged” it was knocked down and re-built until finally it was regarded to be the strongest fortress in Europe. It earned the nick-name of “Gibraltar of the North”. Well, I saw “The” Gibraltar in 1960, and we saw the “Gibraltar of Greece” last December, and now…we see “Gibraltar of the North”. This “Gibraltar” thing is big over here. Last night when we were making plans to catch the train into Luxembourg, we were expecting it to be raining. We had had a thunder storm with some rain earlier in the evening and again about 1 or 2am. When we finally made it out of bed (about 8am), it was a little overcast, but looked pretty good. By the time we had reached the train (about a 10 minute walk) at 10:20am, it was looking like it might be a hot one. As it turned out, it was a “hot one”. The temp was up and the humidity was even higher. When we arrived in town, we found the TI (Tourist Information), got our map of the city, found the locations of the internet café, checked out the “self-guided” walking tour, and we were off…to find Starbucks… What a surprise, the closest one was in Germany, so we had to find another coffee house to get this day started. That wasn’t as easy as it sounds, but to be honest with you, it was only because we (I) were too picky. When we (I) finally made our decision and ordered…it was a mistake, we should have stayed at the first place… You would think it would be easy… To many decision makers… Coffee taken care of, we headed over to the internet for an hour and a half, and then lunch. This time we made it much easier, we choose Mexican. She, a Taco Salad, Me, a Pollo (chicken) Quesadilla. Then, on a full tummy, and on a hot day, we start our “self-guided” tour of Luxembourg. We followed through the “old town”, down into the Petrusse River valley (this time of year, it’s about the size of a stream of water flowing from a water hose), under the wonderful and tall old bridge that was built in 1908, through the Citadel Gardens ( that also has the Quirin Chapel, a beautiful old church that was built right into the side of a hill in the 14th century), back up this steep hill (and I do mean steep !!!), and on and on…it was hot (had I mentioned that before?). Finally, we had had enough, and we found our way back to the air-conditioned train and the 12 minute ride back to the little village where we are camped. I really wanted to stay on that train for a few more hours, but that wife of mine got right upset. Back here, we settled for a couple cold showers, and a couple cold beers, and all that made it much better. I was feeling a little hungry, but she (my lovely), wasn’t, so I went over to the camp restaurant and ordered a spaghetti dinner for myself (she didn’t want anything…). When the order came out, there it was, 2 orders, now 2 HUGE orders of Spaghetti…we will be eating spaghetti for a week to come. Tomorrow…back down to France, and Epernay (in the Champagne district, with lots of samples…