Saturday 11 October

A rain free night and it looked like brightening up, ideal for a trip into the city of Luxembourg. We've tried twice before, so third time lucky. Checking on the fare with reception, the stop was only 100m away and a bus arrived right on time to take us to the recommended stop at Luxembourg Royal, which turned out to be just on the edge of the pedestrianized old town area. After being re-directed to the Tourist Office we found the stop for the City Tour bus, which we always try to use to see as much as we can without too much wandering about. Except it had moved and, naturally, a bus pulled away just as we turned the corner!

However another turned up shortly so we just had time to ponder what language we should use. The chap in the T.I. told us that all the legal stuff was in French, kids were taught in German at school but the natives spoke Luxembourgish, which we later learned was now being encouraged by the government. It mattered not as everybody speaks English anyway!

Luxembourg City is not very big, it mostly being confined to a rock surrounded by a gorge upon which there used to sit a fortress – we never really discovered what happened to it, only that it was flattened and the foundations used to redevelop the city. So the bus trip really only covered the new area of Kirchberg, where all the European (as in EU) institutions, finance houses, banks etc. had their modern buildings. A selection of photos.

One of the bridges across the gorge

Gelle Fra Memorial

Cathedral to the Blessed Virgin

Golden Unicorn

Palace of the Grand Dukes

Band in a fountain (?)

The gorge

Returning to the start, we went in search of lunch, sitting outside a Brioche Doree listening to an accordion player with very twiddly fingers (work it out for yourselves!). With the sun now out we took a walk round the traffic-free area which consisted mainly of a huge range of shops, cafes and restaurants of a very cosmopolitan nature. Luxembourg pushes itself as the shopping centre of Europe, but it ain’t as cheap as it would have you believe.

A pleasant enough place to wander around for a few hours but there is little of historical value to enjoy so mid-afternoon we went in search of the bus and returned to Bertie. With clear blue skies it was time to get the awning out and the chairs to enjoy some rays before it started to get quite cool as the sun went down.

And basically that’s our trip over. Tomorrow we must start back towards Calais ready for our return crossing on Tuesday.