Bellarine Traveller: Luxembourg City

I have just spent a few days in Luxembourg.

Luxembourg is known as a “Grand Duchy”.

The Grand Duke and his family do have a palace in the old part of the city. Next door to the palace is the parliament. This is something the locals talk about – royalty and democracy being so close together.

It is a very cosmopolitan city and I was a bit confused about what the official language was. Many of the signs are in French and people did seem to speak French. However they do have their own language which is a mix of French & German. Children are taught their own language, plus French, German and English. This is the one country I have visited that people only had very basic English, even in hotels and cafes. So sometimes communication as a bit of a challenge!

The architecture of many buildings did remind me a lot of Paris in style and colour.

Luxembourg City is one of the EU Capital Cities along with Brussels & Strasbourg. There are many EU buildings here such as courts, other legal buildings and of course banking & finance.

The city is situated on a huge ravine that has several bridges crossing it. The photos I have taken do not reflect the actual depth of the ravine. In the ravine you find many homes and other buildings, lots of paths and walking tracks as well as a huge park. I did expect to see a river as well – but, no river!

On one side of the ravine sits the old part of the city with its many old buildings, public squares, churches and the cathedral. The other side is newer and where you find places like the railway station, stadiums and sporting venues and a huge shopping area. In the old city, on Saturday mornings there is always a food market in the square near the Palace. And in the next square near the town hall you find what we would all a ‘trash’n’treasure’ market. However, there did not appear to be too much trash. Many of the stalls sold glassware, crockery and books mostly 2^nd hand.

While I was here I did do a sightseeing tour (hop-on-hop-off bus). These bus tours are really good as they always give you an overview of places and you can then hop-off and explore further. There is a new part of the city where most of the EU and banking buildings are and these are all very modern. The whole place seems to blend very well.

In the banking section there is an odd-mix of modern sculptures including one of what a ‘typical banker’ should look like. The actual statue is 8 metres tall!

Sadly in the short time I spent here I did not have the chance to explore areas outside the city. This is a lovely place to visit – and different to other places I have been.