Luxembourg Trip

For a long time we had been deciding to go either to Strasbourg (an important city of France) or Luxembourg (a smal country on, the border). A brazilian, Judson advised us to go to Luxembourg. So we planned a one day trip to this "petit" (little) country. It was 23rd May and our second weekend in France. We started from our hostel at around 6:25 am and we had to catch a train for 6:55. We got a tram in time but it was going slow that day and we thought we will miss the train. We were lucky because the train was late and so we finally got to board it.

There were 8 people in this trip - seven interns and an engineer from IITB. This was my first trip in Europe and I was lucky that we were going to a country other than France on our very first trip. We were excited sitting in the train and we clicked photos in its first class compartment. We reached there around 8:30 and the first thing we experienced was chilling wind. It was 9 degrees and very cold. We waited at the station till 9:00 for the tourist info to open and then bought one day passes for travel.

The first place to be seen was the main market place and I must say it was lovely. Quite different from the markets in France we were enjoying in the sun roaming there. We got lost at first and then when everybody finally met we started a definitive tour of the city. We went to the Notre Dame church and woooooow ... it was so very good. More importantly photography was allowed and so click click !!

The next thing we saw was the ancient remains of the walled fortress. Again we were forced to say "wow, this is really lovely". There were levels of roads running there and a brook at the bottom. Rishi was very eager to go there but we said its too far. We then had a quick breakfast of bread and jam and then set out to see a castle.

We first took a train and then a bus which brought us near to the castle. On the bus we thought we are in Switzerland - with the lovely yellow flowers in the countryside and the windmills faraway and then the mountains with lush green foliage. The way to the castle was steep and not very short but we reached there to find that it was good. People were dressed up in costules of old days and were living in tents cooking food the old way. In reality these people were German tourists who were camping there. From the top of the castle we could see a river beautifully meandering its way through the hills.

From here we went to another place nearby to see the military museum and a small church. There were girls singing in Deutsch in the church ... which means ?? a lot of photographs !! Then we headed back for the city and headed for a restaurant in the main market because everyone was hungry. After the early dinner we strolled through the closed shops (it was only 7:00 pm) doing window shopping. By the time we reached the station we were tired. But soon was to come the best part of the day.

In the train everybody sat down together and we talked about so many things. It all reached it's climax when we took the bus from Metz. We sat down on the last seat and then chatted in loud tones (keeping everybody in the bus on their nerves) .... it was fun !

Helpful Notes: Luxembourg is a small country bordered by France on the west and Germany on the east. The capital is also called Luxembourg. Both French and Deutsch are spoken there. Best place to visit is the castle near Bourscheid
and the old remains of the fortress which have been declared a World Heritage by the UNESCO. Connectivity from France is very good by trains and it takes just two hours from Nancy and maybe three from Paris. There is a one day pass for 18 euros for 3 people using which you can use all the public transport in the entire country .....