A Day in Luxembourg

Following Brussels, the next stop was a quick, one day affair in Luxembourg.  The weather was quite cold and still as dreary as ever.  Fortunately, the train to Luxembourg was warm and welcoming.

Before long, the train had arrived at the Gare de Luxembourg which looked a little plainer and smaller than I thought.  In fact, it resembled a smallish church or cathedral from the exterior.

After walking to the hotel (which was fortunately almost directly across from the station), I had gotten some information from the front desk regarding sites to see in Luxembourg.  Apparently, the entire city was not too big and was entirely walkable.  After the journey from Brussels, I was hungry for a little lunch at the Brasserie La Fontaine at the Place de Paris.

Famished, as always, I ordered the Gromperenzalot mat Wirschtercher (ie. sausages with potato salad) and Mielkniddele mat Speck (ie. dumplings with diced bacon)

As I'm a huge fan of sausages and potato salad, first dish was quite to my liking.  The second was rather unique as the dumplings are sort of like pieces of bread dunked in oil served with lots of bacon and a sweet apple sauce with fresh greens.  The entire meal was quite delicious although I was a tad worried about my arteries clogging up throughout.

After lunch, the trek continued north until the famous Pont Adolphe, a symbol of Luxembourg had been crossed.

Turning slightly north east, after about a 10 minute walk, the Place d'Armes was reached.  Unfortunately, the Luxembourg Christmas market had ended the day before so the only scenes were those of the lovely Christmas lights all around the old town.

Heading eastward once more, after passing a few streets, the Palais Grand-Ducal stood directly ahead.  This was the residence of the Grand Duke of Luxembourg, the head of state of the Grand Duchy.

As the evening was getting chillier, I trudge onwards towards the Bock Casemates, a series of fortifications overlooking the river below.  Apparently, at one point, a certain Napoleon Bonaparte had stopped by.

At this point, the cold had started to set in and mustering up my remaining energy, I trudged through the snowy streets for 25 minutes back to the hotel.  At that point, most restaurants were already closed so I went with good ol' Micky D's, where 3-sausage burger and Luxembourg version of the chicken sandwich finished off the day.