July 5 –Luxembourg, Luxembourg. This is a totally new country and city for us so we had to figure some things out. The tourist information shop is in old town so we had to walk from the hotel but not all that far. They will sell you a Luxembourg Card that lets you ride all the public transportation you want, as much as you want. It also gives you a discount of the Hop On-Hop Off Bus and reduced entry to some of the attractions around town.
The city of Luxembourg is the capital of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. It's located at the junction of the Alzette and Pétrusse Rivers in southern Luxembourg. It's very centrally located in Western Europe. It's about the same distance to Brussels, Paris or Cologne.
Very recently Luxembourg had the second highest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the world, with a per capita GDP of over 80 thousand dollars. It is home to several branches of the European Union, including the European Court of Justice, the European Court of Auditors, the Secretariat of the European Parliament, the European Investment Bank, the European Investment Fund, and the European Stability Mechanism. Yikes!! Luxembourg has long been a banking and investment center, sometimes used by crime syndicates and other swindlers as a tax haven. Glad to see they're putting some of that expertise to good use.
During Roman times a guard tower stood at the intersection of two Roman roads. The eventual castle built there was named Lucilinburhuc ("small castle") and over time that became Luxembourg. In 987 Egbert, Archbishop of Trier, consecrated the Church of the Redemption (today St. Michael's Church). A marketplace started at the Roman road intersection near the church and that started the city.
The city has been strategically important throughout history. The first fortifications were built in the 900s. By the end of the 1100s new walls were built that included an area of over 10 acres. In about 1340 John the Blind built new fortifications were built that stood until 1867
By the 1500s Luxembourg City was one of the strongest fortifications in Europe. That strength didn't seem to help much as the Burgundians, the Spanish, the French, the Spanish again, the Austrians, the French again, and the Prussians conquered Luxembourg. In the 17th century, the first casemates were built; Spain built 14 miles of tunnels, starting in 1644. These were then enlarged under French rule and again under Austrian rule in the middle 1700s.
During the French Revolutionary War, the city was taken twice by France: oncein 1792–3, and, later, after a seven-month siege. Luxembourg held out for so long under the French siege that French politician and military engineer Lazare Carnot called Luxembourg "the best fortress in the world, except Gibraltar", giving rise to the city's nickname: the 'Gibraltar of the North'. Luxembourg was annexed by the French Republic. Under the 1815 Treaty of Paris, which ended the Napoleonic Wars, Luxembourg City was placed under Prussian military control as a part of the German Confederation, although sovereignty passed to the House of Orange-Nassau, in personal union with the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. Things were never simple in that time period.
When, in 1890, Grand Duke William III died without any male heirs, the Grand Duchy passed out of Dutch hands, and into an independent line under Grand Duke Adolphe. Thus, Luxembourg, which had hitherto been independent in theory only, became a truly independent country, and Luxembourg City regained some of the importance that it had lost in 1867 by becoming the capital of a fully independent state. It was occupied by Germany in WWI. The Commies tried a revolution here and declared a socialist republic but it only lasted a few hours. People of German descent were not about to let that idiotic system take over.
In WWII Germany occupied Luxembourg again. The Nazis were not prepared to allow Luxembourgers self-government, and gradually integrated Luxembourg into the Third Reich by informally attaching the country administratively to a neighboring German province. Luxembourg City was liberated on 10 September 1944.
Luxembourg City is subdivided into twenty-four quarters (really 24 quarters?). You just have to love the new math. Within the city is a large American cemetery where 5,076 US soldiers are buried. Among them General George S. Patton. I'm pretty sure he'd approve of his spot among the fallen of all ranks.
I started out early again to go to the railway station to get our tickets for tomorrow's trip to Brussels. The sun was just perfect for a photo of the prettiest building in the city, the train station. I got the tickets and was back at the hotel before Diana was ready for breakfast. We decided to skip the hotel buffet, it's not included here, and eat breakfast next door at McDonald's.
Then we made the walk into the old part of town (Centre Quartier). We are staying in the Quartier Gare (Railway Station Quarter). To get there we had to cross the Viaduc Bridge that gave us a great view up and down the Pétrusse River Valley that had provided natural defenses for the city. It's a deep ravine with sharply sloping sides which at times are completely vertical. Not bad for slowing down enemy troops.
In one direction there's a very tall viaduct that serves as a railroad bridge and is built like an old Roman aqueduct. I don't know how old the bridge is but no one would build a stone bridge that tall anytime recently. In the other direction is a very new pre-stressed concrete highway bridge.
Just up the hill and around the corner we came to Constitution Square home to the war memorial and the Hop On-Hop Off Bus. I left Diana at the memorial and went up to the church square to get our Luxembourg Cards. When I returned with the cards we purchased tickets to the HoHo bus and rode a lap around the city. The tour gave us a good overview of the city layout and its various neighborhoods. We drove out through the new banking area (Quartier Clausen); a business park with huge buildings housing the country's banking industry. Near here is the new performance center and some of the EU buildings. One particularly odd shaped building it the center for document translation. Our guide told us that every document produced by the EU has to be translated into every language spoken in the confederation. He seemed a little peeved that Luxembourgish was not one of them. I would be too. We also drove by the EU Court of Justice and the EU Auditors buildings. The EU apparently provides a lot of jobs here.
Our bus finally made its way back to the Old Town section (the Center Quarter) and we hopped off to take a look at the Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin. It's a large sandstone structure that's not very ornate on the outside, most likely Romanesque. Inside it's not overly decorated but it does have some very nice murals and mosaics. One of the murals is a very different take on the Miracle of the Water into Wine at the wedding in Cana. Everyone was in clothing from the Middle Ages except Jesus.
The stained glass windows are beautiful and the tall slender windows in the apse provided a warm backdrop for the ornately dressed statue of Mary on the main altar. She's dressed in green embroidered with gold, a white cape and a gold crown and scepter. The baby Jesus also has a crown and is holding an orb with a cross on the top. Two golden incense burners hang from their shoulders. Very pretty. They are seriously bilingual here. Even the candles have both French and German inscriptions. One candle with the picture of a flowing stream says Source de Vie and Wasser des Lebens, both "Water (Source) of Life". Another with a picture of a Eucharistic wafer says Brot des Lebens and Pain de Vie, both Bread of Life. The Saint Joseph chapel at the front of the left aisle has a very nice mosaic that proclaims Saint Joseph the Protector and pictures him holding Jesus at about the age of 3. The church narthex has some interesting displays about the history of the church and the city in three languages, German, French and English.
From the church we walked up the hill to another bridge spanning the ravine to go into the Bock Casemates. Casemates usually consist of two parts a thick above ground wall that's wide enough for troop movements and artillery with towers and a short protective wall and an underground system that's sometimes inside the wall and at other times tunnels under the ground along the wall. In either event there are also artillery positions and places for the soldiers to fight from as well. Th
The tour of the Bock Casemates is self-guided. The lower system, the Petrusse Casemates, are down near the square where we caught the HoHo Bus has guided tours. At first the tunnels are inside the wall and very wide with large open platforms for artillery. This part of the system is relatively bright as the wide gun ports let in a lot of daylight. They have openings on both sides where the casemate went out onto a curve that allowed for 280 degree views. On this level there are large rooms excavated that served as housing, mess and offices for those on duty inside the casemate.
The next level down the tunnels are smaller have mostly smaller ports for small arms to be fired through. There's a main tunnel, although small, with even smaller tunnels branching off to lead to the gun ports that are usually grouped 3 or 4 to a small room at the end of the branch tunnel. It's in these tunnels that they had ammo bunkers and one tunnel led to the well that could supply them with water if they were cut off.
The next level down the tunnels were even smaller, definitely single file walking and it would be tough going for anyone 6 feet tall. Sometimes I had to be careful not to bash my head on an outcropping of rock. They have no gun ports down here and it appear to be a passage for troop movement from area to area without exposing them to any risk at all, except maybe claustrophobia. They are small and without any openings to the outside dark. They were not particularly well lit either. I noticed that at this level there were several panic posts. They are sort of like the posts you see in the US in parking lots where you can run and push a panic button if someone is threatening to you. Here I think they are for use by people who become disoriented or panic from being in the dark in a closed in space. Since they don't really arm you with a map of the layout of the caves I can see where that could happen. The tunnels at this lower level go up and down sometimes by spiral staircases that are also very narrow.
I'm not sure how far we walked underground but it must have been over a mile. It was an interesting place.
After emerging from our stint as mole people we walked back up the hill to the Church of Michael the archangel. In a niche outside the front doors they have placed a statue of Michael with a fiery sword in his hand, standing on the dragon he's about to dispatch. This pretty little church had a surprise in store for us. Someone was practicing the organ inside so we sat in one of the pews for an impromptu concert. The keyboard and therefore the organist were out of sight behind the pipes in the balcony. The pieces I recognized were Bach but there were some that I didn't know. I love it when we happen on music. The windows had some pretty stained glass that had a somewhat contemporary look. I doubt it was over 100 years old. Inside the church was an exact copy of the statue outside but painted. The one outside may have been painted too at one time but the elements might have put an end to that.
We walked up the hill a bit further and found a small café for a bit of a late lunch. They said they made their own hamburgers so I had one. It was excellent.
As we made our way back to Constitution Square we passed the Ducal Palace. It's a pretty but angular place. The stone is carved with ornate figures and it has three balconies, two have a black and gold wrought iron railing, one is part black and gold wrought iron and part marble. Two are on the second floor; one appears to be personal and the other for state occasions. The one on the third floor appears to be for very formal occasions and is the most impressive as it has a gold crown atop the rail at the center with the royal coat of arms below it. In front of the main entrance there are two guard boxes but only one is manned today. If General George Patton was right and the ability of an army to fight is inversely related to the ornateness of his uniform then the Army of Luxembourg must be one mean machine. The official guard is wearing the least ornate official guard uniform I've ever seen. Tan shirt, white belt, olive trousers bloused into black jump boots, a navy blue beret and a light blue ascot. That's it. He did have a very serious fully automatic rifle in a ready sling across his chest. None of the old, inlaid, chromed up parade weapons here. It's probably a Styr, definitely a bullpup design with the magazine in the stock way aft of the trigger and grip. From the look of the magazine it's something larger than the 5.56 of the M-16, maybe 7.62. It's a short weapon because the chamber is way back in the stock allowing for a reasonable barrel length while keeping the overall length down. If your position was properly prepared you could maintain a very low profile while firing this rifle
The Chamber of Deputies is in the building right next door and I wouldn't be surprised to find that there's a way to get between the two without going outside.
From here we walked to the upper square, Guillaume II Plaza. That's William in Luxembourgish just as it is in Spanish. There's a large mounted statue of Grand Duc (Duke) Guillaume II in the center of the plaza. To his right is city hall and there are offices for government officials around most of the plaza. Everywhere we go I keep looking for the Duke of Earl and I'm always disappointed. I'm beginning to think they just made him up for that song. (Ouch, I had my tongue so far in my cheek, I bit it.) He makes a grand figure sitting on the prancing horse with is Napoleon style hat is his hand seeming to say, "Here I am in all my magnificence!" And he's right because there were absolutely no signs of any pigeon droppings on him. Now that I think about it, that's because there were no pigeons. Either the cats here are unusually cunning or the city is controlling them some way. Those rats with wings are tough to deal with.
From there we went back to Constitution Plaza and reboarded the HoHo Bus for a final lap of Luxembourg. We got off at the train station just one stop sort of a complete lap because our hotel is only one block up from there.
This is a very nice city, easy to get around in and friendly. There's a few more panhandlers than one would really want near the train station but they're not aggressive and if you ignore them they just let you pass.
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