One of my days in Luxembourg was filled with a trip to Clervaux. This started well when I got to the railway station to find that there were works on the line, so I'd have to get a rail replacement bus as far as Ettelbruck. But as it wasn't the UK, the bus turned up in the right place at the right time and all was well. Ooh, and the train from Ettelbruck was a double decker!
There isn't a huge amount in Clervaux - a castle, a church, a toy museum and the usual shops/cafés. I was there on a Sunday, but I can't imagine the town gets much busier even when everything is open.
Here's the castle, and a slightly random dinosaur painting. There was quite a bit of art dotted all around the town, including a selection of cow portraits near the castle entrance. Not really sure why, but I quite liked it.
rawr
Inside the castle are several museums/exhibitions. The Battle of the Bulge (which I didn't go in as I wasn't sure I had time), scale models of lots of the castles of Luxembourg (a bit underwhelming - though I think if I'd visited more of the actual castles it would have been more interesting), and the Family of Man photo exhibition.
a group of images with the theme of joined hands
Seeing this exhibition was my main reason for visiting Clervaux. As the name suggests, almost all the photos are of people. The photos are organised according to different themes and displayed in a variety of ways - including hanging from the ceiling. Definitely more of a visual impact than a row of frames on the wall.
An audio guide was available, which in hindsight I wish I'd gone for, but even without the added explanations it was all very impressive. I'm not going to bother trying to describe the overall experience because I will fail miserably, but it was all very impressive. Even if I was craving photos of things other than people by the end of it (there was a lovely big Ansel Adams landscape though!)
Oh, and a bit more art on the wall of a building somewhere:
This overlooked a statue of an American soldier, as some sort of liberation memorial. Perhaps if I'd gone round the Bulge museum I'd have learnt a bit more about it...
At the end of June I had a long weekend in Luxembourg, because small European countries are cool and it gave me another excuse to practise speaking French.
First up, here is a view from the Chemin de la Corniche, looking over the Old Town/Grund area of the city. Very pretty! This was taken as I was following the signposted Wenzel Walk, which I combined with the City Promenade (not signposted, but leaflets for both are available from tourist information) to spend a morning walking around most of the city.
Alzette river and Neumünster Abbey
Unsurprisingly for a city built around two deep river gorges, there are a lot of steep bits and buildings hanging onto cliffs. I visited the city history museum, which is over six floors.. several of which seemed to be at street level.
I made a point of finding this junction of 3 streets at different levels, simply because I'd seen a picture of it online ages ago and been intrigued. Not far from here is a lift that takes you back up to Ville Haute, for anyone fed up of walking up steep slopes.
Another thing you can do when you build your city on top of a cliff is dig a load of defensive tunnels into it - the Bock Casemates. Interesting historical titbit - the fortress was dismantled as part of the neutralisation of the country in the 1800s, but because there are so many tunnels in the rock, they couldn't be destroyed without taking large chunks of the city with them. So they got used as bomb shelters during the world wars, and are now open to tourists.
Luxembourg is the world's only Grand Duchy, with the palace located opposite some shops and cafés... meaning you can have a cup of tea while watching the guards march, and important people going in and out.
It's also got one of the worlds highest per capita GDPs, which does show... Everywhere looks clean and tidy, buildings are either old and very well preserved or shiny and new. OK, I did see a few beggars, but in general the locals all looked well dressed and relaxed... and it's so interesting to overhear conversations that are chopping and changing between 2, 3 or maybe even 4 languages (I am jealous!!)
There are also several well kept parks in the city. One evening I went for a jog along the Pétrusse river (which is just a little trickle in a concrete channel), and on my final day I sat with a book in the municipal park near my hotel, which had an amazing pirate ship children's play area. And also whatever these circles are for, next to a bit of old fort:
maybe it's just art?
I purchased a 3 day Luxembourg Card for €28, which covered... continue reading »
Time to add another number to my age - but I'm back to a prime number again so maybe it's not completely awful.
This year's cake was cherries, berries and apple (and muesli, and yoghurt). Yum yum yum.
As for actual birthday celebrations... we headed down to Bristol for the day to visit ss Great Britain and do their 'Go Aloft' experience - climbing up the rigging, then shuffling out along the main yard. Predictably, the views were quite good from the top!
Then we had a BBQ and went into town for a few drinks. Not a bad day really!
tags: holiday Luxembourg 
