Luxembourg:
Day 1
|
 |
||||
|
|
|||||
Today everyone was tired. We slept in... and didn't leave until 2 PM.
We took a bus into town, and walked around the plazas. The kids had Micky D's for lunch (again).
This weekend is a holiday weekend for the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. It's the Duke's birthday! So Monday is a holiday, and all the stores are having sales. Woo-hoo!
We walked through the pedestrian town center and looked in all the stores. MaxMara was having a big sale, but there wasn't anything that really struck me... I mean, how many black tops do I need? We passed a shoe store that was having a sale on Tod's -- excellent prices, almost like being in Italy! But I have enuf shoes, so again, I didn't buy anything. Then we found a Longchamps store. My cousin Ruth had asked me to get her a new purse from there... a specific type. Unfortunately, they didn't have it. But they did have a nice case for my Clie that was on sale!
We continuing strolling down the boulevards and through the city. We came upon one of the gorges that runs through the city. It had a beautiful park in it with this strange red balls on the other side of the gorge. So we descended many steps to the bottom to check them out. It was a lovely park, and many people were enjoying the sunshine.
We climbed up a steep hill to check out the orbs. The balls were about 6' tall, and secured to the hillside by chains. They were oddly compelling.
From there, we climbed up to where the Ducal palace was, and wandered around that part of the city, before catching a bus and going home.
After resting a bit, 5 of us (Lauren decided to stay home) went out to dinner. We walked into one half-empty restaurant and asked for a table, but upon finding out we did not have a reservation, we were turned away. The restaurants here expect to have one serving per night, so if you reserve a table it's yours for the night. Oh well. Across the street we found a restaurant that allowed us to eat without reservations.
The food in these restaurants (Luxembourgiose) is very germanic in nature. Lotsa meat. I was able to have them make me a salad without, and to find one thing on the menu (smoked salmon) that I could eat. Everyone else had meat. Max had a weinerschnitzel that looked like breaded pounded meat. Odd!
After eating, we went back to the city to watch the fireworks in honor of the Duke's birthday. Because it's still fairly light here at 10 PM, the 'works weren't scheduled to start until 11. So we went to watch them on one of the bridges spanning the gorge.
They were choreographed to music and were quite spectacular. There were loads of people watching them... the whole city was out that night.
Walking back to the car after the show, we ran into Patty, Kevin and Olivia. Patty and Kevin both work at the embassy, and Olivia is their 12 year old daughter. They were able to answer a bunch of important questions about Luxembourg (like why the license plates only have the EU symbol and not an "L" on them), and give us some pointers on what to do and where to eat.
We returned home and went to bed... another late night out!