Luxembourg: Sat 31 Aug – Mon 2 Sept: Accommodation

Sat 31 Aug

It was shaping up to be a beautiful day for our last morning in Namur and our drive down to Luxemburg. We had a bit of time between checking out of our hotel and checking in at the apartment so we made a stop at Dinant along the way.

Dinant was a lot like Namur in that it had a similar population (around 115,000), a Citadel perched high above the city and was also located along a river, however, IMHO… Dinant was much prettier.  A much greater opportunity had been made of its waterfront location with loads of cafes, restaurants and shops facing out over the water and celebrating the glorious outlook. We only spent a couple of hours at Dinant, with a visit to the Collegiate Church of Norte Dame, the Citadel and one of the waterfront cafes, but if I was ever back in the region and having to choose to stay either here or Namur, I would recommend Dinant, it was just so pretty.

It was around 2.30 pm by the time we made our way down to Luxembourg and found the apartment building, with the associated parking, and made our way inside. A little revelation here: we now consider that we would be better staying in easy-access hotels for these shorter 2-night stays. I’ll have to keep that in mind with any future planning. The apartment was a great find though as it was large, sun filled and modern and made a great base for our two night stay in Luxembourg. It was located in a building on the edge of the historic old town area with the front of the building facing on to the pedestrian only zone. Our apartment was located at the rear of the building with views out over the city.

It was almost 5 pm before we set off outside to explore the area find the main square and we didn’t have to go far at all as Place d’Armes, was just a three minute walk from our front of the building. What was surprising though was that between our apartment and this square was the extreme high end retail zone where we found Chanel, Hermes, Louis Vuitton and the like. I then realised just how good the location of our apartment was but I’m not sure Mark was feeling the same at this point 🙂

We had a walking tour set down for tomorrow, but we used one of the GPSmyCity walking guides of Luxembourg to explore for the next hour or so. It was very hot though and so we didn’t last too long and ended up back at Place d’Armes to sit in the shade of one of the many cafe / bars to have a cool drink. The heat was contributing to us both feeling quite weary so we then headed back to the apartment to have a night of dining in.

 

Sun 1 Sept

It was another glorious morning and forecast to be up near 30° today so we set out for an early walk to do some more exploring whilst it was still cool. Our walk gave us the opportunity to take in the landscape of the area and it was most striking. The central part of the city, where our apartment is located, was originally established as a fort in the 10th century and is perched rather high and surrounded by an ancient city wall carved into the steep sided cliff of a narrow valley. The area is also referred to as Ville Haute which translates to ‘High City’. There were various bridges connecting Ville Haute to the outer regions and we crossed two of these on our walk whilst enjoying the most spectacular views and it was not surprising to later read that the city was on the UNESCO World Heritage list.

We even managed to visit Notre Dame Cathedral as it was opening, as yesterday it had been closed for a Wedding, and found the inside to be absolutely beautiful. It was worth going inside just to view the stained glass windows as they were magnificent. Luxembourg was lucky to have escaped a lot of bombing during the world wars, that cities further north had suffered, so it seemed the windows in the Cathedral had survived. On our way back to the apartment we stopped of for Mark to have a coffee at Gruppetto, the only open cafe in the area, and to his great delight this turned out to be a cycling cafe which just capped off his morning!

Our 2hr walking tour started at 11 am and was guided by Jesus from Spain. Mark managed to pick up pieces of information from Jesus throughout the walk but his thick Spanish accent and rapid fire speech meant that I caught very little. The tour was of value though as Jesus took us through parts of the city that we hadn’t seen yesterday and gave us useful tips for how to spend the afternoon. The few bits of information that I did pick up were:

• Luxembourg was a poor country until around the 1850s when iron ore was discovered and industry then flourished
• Schengen: is a village in Luxembourg where the 1985 EU Schengen treaty was signed
• Luxembourg has the highest minimum salary in Europe
• Public transport is free in Luxembourg
• Health care is free as well. You pay up front but get reimbursed by the state 

Our tour finished up just after 1 pm so Mark and I headed back to an area Jesus had suggested and to the oldest beer cafe in Luxembourg. From there we went and caught the free elevator down to the lower Grund district of Luxembourg; the area I had been photographing non-stop since we arrived. We had  a little bit of an explore down there, but it was no cooler as we had hoped, and I soon hit a wall given it was just so hot and we had already walked 10 km for the day!  With me hitting the wall we decided to head back to the apartment for a bit rest before going out for an aperitivo drink later in the early evening. The high temperatures had me revisiting all of our future bookings and I revised the one I had for Alba. Whereas we were previously staying in a nice apartment in the Old Town, we are now staying in a venue with a pool located outside of the Old Town. This is roughly the mid-point of our trip and I suspect I might spend the entire 3 days of this section submerged in the pool! We have been surprised just how hot it is, so high up in Europe as we still are relatively, given how late in the year it is. Mark suspects this is only going to get worse for Europe and predicts it’ll have a significant negative impact on their Summer tourism. Food for thought!

We had greatly enjoyed our time in Luxembourg and probably could have had one extra day here to explore the city. This wasn’t to be though as tomorrow we head to Cologne, Germany.