Luxembourg

I went to Luxembourg in November 2023. This is my story.

I went to Luxembourg City after I left Bruges, Belgium (You can read the full trip story here). I crossed into Luxembourg after getting on a train in Arlon, Belgium. This train was closer to a regular city train than a cross-country train, but it was only a 20 minute ride. I knew I was cutting it close to my 8pm reservation. While I was at my airBnB earlier, I had routed myself to the restaurant, so I knew every 5 minutes Tram #1 would come to the train station. When I got off the train, I swiftly walked to where I thought the tram stop was. I was wrong, but I saw it coming in and was able to run onto the tram that stopped at the station. When I got on the tram, I quickly checked that my stop was listed (it was), and sat down for a 5 minute ride. I was only 5 minutes late to my reservation, but they seemed disapproving. I had planned to check into my hotel and dress up for dinner, but all the drama with my phone meant that wasn’t an option. Nevertheless, I had a fantastic dinner. This steak was literally the best steak I have ever had. It was covered in onion and garlic sauce and was super tender. The fries were okay, and the salad was good. The steak was just so large that I barely ate anything else. I also tried their house white wine. Afterwards, I made it safely to my hotel and enjoyed the little plaza outside decorated for christmas.

I had a cute little breakfast at the hotel, then checked out. When I stepped outside my hotel the view was very different from the night before. There was a whole farmers market taking up the entire plaza (with a carousel to boot!)! I wandered around the farmers market and then farther afield before realizing nothing was really open yet (it was 9am).

I found the tourism office in the same plaza as my hotel, so I went in. I got a map and museum recommendations. I went to the Luxembourg City History Museum first since it was closer. When I bought my ticket, the officer told me my ticket also comes with access to an art museum. The museum had 6 floors (I only did 5 of them). The first floor had a large room explaining how difficult it is to figure out what someone actually looked like. It also had this statue of a mermaid? It didn’t really explain that one, but the walls of the museum are meant to give you the feeling of being in Luxembourg at whatever time the exhibit was. This first floor had mostly rocky walls. After the mermaid the museum took you through basically all of Luxembourg City’s history. From military outpost to the financial capital of the EU. Each section had a nice scale model of the city. One even had a light show depicting the siege of Luxembourg City.

Towards the end of the Luxembourg City history portion of the museum, it got a little abstract. Some artist had a video documenting the crazy M-F traffic juxtaposing the empty streets on the weekends. Another had this….light swing….that also had some sounds playing…?…in this room with stairs that go to nowhere…it sure was something. The swing was swinging, too.

The fifth floor (and last one I did) had the temporary exhibit “All You Can Eat.” It went through what Luxembourgish people have eaten throughout time, and also had some graphic information about food inequality in the world. There was also a dog character throughout this floor that kept talking about these potato pancake type food. The big payoff was the recipe at the end. I haven’t made them yet, but I plan to!

Next up, I walked over the art museum that was included with my ticket. This museum was called Villa Vauban Art Museum. It was named after the same person my hotel was named after (Hotel Vauban). He was a famous engineer. The museum was kinda small, and had the 1600-1800s art work in the same room as some wooden carved pieces from the 2020s. It also had a small replica of The Thinker at the end of a dramatic hallway.

There was definitely more to have seen in Luxembourg City. Like the story behind this plaque in the photo below. But I had a train to catch, and I wanted to see the country side this time. I also thought this video that’s shown on the tram was funny. I don’t know why the eyeball missed the train or what it wanted me to know about it.

I accidentally skipped lunch because of the museums, so I grabbed some McDonalds on my way to the train station. Of course, I had a snack wrap. This one was called a grilled chicken snack wrap, but that’s because the wrap itself was grilled (the chicken was fried). Either way, delicious.

So, it turns out, I really didn’t miss much on my way to Luxembourg. Most of the train route is next to berms, so the photo below is what I saw most of the time. I did see a few castles though! The sun was setting shortly before I arrived in Brussels. It was a great view, but didn’t make for pretty pictures.

I continued my trip in Brussels. You can read the rest of the story here.