Letz talk about Lëtzebuerg

 Hello, from a Paris-bound train, one part of my journey home. You lucky so-and-so's- you'll be in for a double instalment of blog posts.

So, yesterday, I went to Luxembourg City, the capital of, naturally, Luxembourg, or Lëtzebuerg, as it's known in the native tongue. Now this wasn't the first time visiting Luxembourg, as I'd gone there on Tuesday, killing a bit of time before checking-in to my apartment in France. However, this time I was doing the touristy-shebang, with a point of seeing the sights and museums that it had to offer.

I arrived in the city, having done a bit of research on the train, and conscious of Luxembourg's reputation for being quite an expensive country, took advantage of the free opportunity (and public transport) to visit the European Parliament. After going through what felt like quite a vigorous security check- even being given a visitor's badge to show that I wasn't an upstart in a cat shirt looking to become an MEP, I was let in. 

The outside of the parliament

The actual area that you could visit was on the small-side, but there was a reasonable amount of interactive activities that you could partake in., including a VR headset activity, which I never got round to doing, because there was a queue of kids bagsying it before I could have a chance- but, hey, I may not be the target audience for it :) It obviously spoke about the work that EU does, and had a circular meeting area, like what you would see in the main EU Parliament. 

In the room, it showed you a video, with German, English and French subtitles. However, it had these translation devices that the MEPs put on their ears to listen to a translator. Now, as I said, the video had English subtitles, but I obviously wanted to feel a sense of importance and put them on, listening to the English translation. 

After moving on, I craved some falafels, so looked up the best-rated Lebanese restaurant in Luxembourg, and headed there. And after having my falafels, with pitta, homemade hummus (which was really good!), and a pesto dip, my stomach told me that enough was enough, and that I couldn't managed a solitary falafel and pitta. But ever wanting to make the most of the meal, I doggy-bagged it all, hummus included, which later went into my bag- still, it was worth the sacrifice :)

Luxembourg City is renowned for its casemates, which were used as part of its defence against the Nazis in World War 2. At 11 euros, they weren't the cheapest, but it gave me a welcome break from the afternoon sun. 

(Tom, 2 days later, at home) From there onwards, I pootled around the city centre, and went to the Notre-Dame cathedral- the Luxembourgish one, of course. The streets are very reminiscent of a quaint French town, and you can clearly see that it has remained true to its traditional style. 

However, not so traditional and quaint is the building for the National Art & History Museum, opened in 2002. If you ever want to get lost in a museum, then this is certainly a good contender. It had about 10 floors, and had a range of displays- archaeological, artistic, and historical. By this point, it was the afternoon, and as someone who pores over every fact at the museum, I was quite relieved to see some of the displays in French only, as I felt that I'd tested my French enough over the duration of my stay to try to translate the contents of the displays.

And so, after chickening out from heading up a 360 degrees lookout ride, I went across a very well-maintained underpass on the bridge- obviously keeping away from the edge, boarded the commuter train back to my accommodation, and prepared for the journey back to Blighty.

Tom