Our chilly morning naturally started with a search for hot drinks and nourishment. We were light on agenda, so we wandered the streets of Luxembourg City to find both. Oddly it seemed we were early birds, as the streets were relatively empty until a few hours later.
Here are a couple of photos from our walk:
This looked important since there were two soldiers armed with semi-automatic weapons taking turns standing guard and pacing out front. Turns out it was the grand-ducal palace, the town residence of the Grand Duke! The architecture is in the style of the Flemish renaissance and it was built in the 16th century:
After we found our hot drinks and pastries, we headed to the Bock Casements.
Along the way we saw the former Castle of the Counts of Luxembourg, with earliest mention in written record calling the castle “Lucilinburhuc,” and dating back to 963 AD. After changing hands many times due to its strategic position, in 1867 Luxembourg was declared “perpetually neutral” by the Congress of London. This included a requirement of dismantling the castle/fortress as much as could be without destroying everything woven into it; the process took more than 16 years to complete.
Here are photos of the castle ruins and from the area around it:
Next we explored the casements, which were a network of underground tunnels used in times of war. Much of this network was sealed off after the declaration in 1867, but some pieces remain open to the public. At one time, 35,000 people could shelter below the city!
In the tunnels, there are openings in the walls to allow airflow and provide good vantage/defensive points. Here are photos from the casements:
And here’s our girl’s selfie (apparently she took it when I asked her to briefly hold my phone, lol):
After climbing up and down all those stairs in the casements we were hungry. We discovered that Luxembourg was the place I had tried to recall where restaurants shut down between 2pm and 6pm. We were able to find a little shop where we could get paninis to go, however, so we were happy. Our girl was especially happy because she was able to place her order all en francais!
And we picked up a few fabulous desserts:
We only walked around a little more before heading back to the Airbnb…the chill in the air had turned biting cold, so we found ingredients for our supper and gave up for the evening. Then Marc made us a delicious meal of fettuccini with bolognese sauce inspired by a cooking show we recently saw…mmm!
Interestingly, Luxembourg has a different way than Prague does for dealing with aging cobblestone. Prague’s cobblestones are under repair in various places we saw, rather than being paved over like in Luxembourg:
Our walk back included a monument that was erected in 1923, partially destroyed by the Nazis in 1940, partially rebuilt in 1958, and then fully restored in 1985:
And last but not least, the booth that both our kids kept referring to as the “Superman Booth” (never mind it’s the wrong color):
Tomorrow we make our way to Paris for the final stages of our journey. Bon nuit!
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