Hidden Luxembourg

Firstly, the crow on the picture to the right was alive.

Last week I went to Luxembourg for business. It was my third time there but in the previous ones I hardly found time to visit the town. In my first visit, in December last year, my plane landed in the middle of a snow storm quite late at night; all I can say about it is that I am very thankful to the skillful pilot of Luxair. I only had one hour to visit the town in the afternoon. My second visit was even shorter, since I flew back and forth from Frankfurt in the very same day, I only worked that day. This time, though, I had a whole morning for sightseeing.

Luxembourg is divided in several hills and the first remarkable feature about it is the huge bridges that it has. The one joining the city centre with the financial area (Kirchberg) is really one of the largest I have ever seen. But the cosiest one is that of the railway, surrounding the city centre and which provides very nice views of the city while on a train.

The city centre of Luxembourg has nothing outstanding to offer the visitor when compared with other cities in Europe. The cathedral, the Royal Palace, the town hall,... have nothing special in tourist terms. What is more, at eight in the evening it is totally empty, it seems not many people goes out for dinner in Luxembourg on Thursday evening (or that they do not go to the city centre for dinner). However, Petrusse valley, which surrounds the hill where the city centre lays, is worth a visit in autumn, when the leaves of the trees get a lot of different colors, ranging from green to yellow.But the most amazing part of the city is around the Bock Casemates and Grund, downhill from the city centre. A walk close to the river and to the former abbey of Neu-münster is really quite pleasant and something unbelievable if you think that you are in the heart of one of the financial major cities in Europe. I strongly recommend a visit to Grund neighbourhood, since it is far away from the typical image we have in our mind when we listen the word "Luxembourg".
Something that struck me in this visit is that the three taxi drivers that I met were Portuguese and that even one of them told me that there are around 80.000 Portuguese living in Luxembourg... I do not wish to start a revolution, but maybe one day they can try to gain full control over the country. The second and last thing I would like to mention here is that in Luxembourg I never know whether I should speak German or French and, then, I always realize that my French needs some urgent refreshing...