October 9, 2021
I figure that you should always try to make the most of your time when traveling, and from Trier it was just an hour by train into Luxembourg City, the capital of Luxembourg. So I figured why not go. Plus when I Googled Luxembourg City, it seemed like a really cool place to go explore for a day. I wasn't disappointed.
I grabbed a pastry in the morning on the way to the train station, and just barely caught the 8:45am train. They left hourly, and it was just 4 euro to travel to another country. The leisurely train ride went along the Moselle River for the first half of it, and just like the Rhine it's nothing but vineyards on either side.
The train crossed over the border into Luxembourg, and immediately started speaking French over the loudspeakers instead of German. This of course meant I still didn't understand anything it was saying. But 'do you speak English' is one of the three things in French I knew how to say, so I figured I'd be okay in Luxembourg too.
The downtown part of the city is basically on a rock with a giant moat around it. There's a pretty big valley surrounding three quarters of the city, which means it was definitely the advantageous place to build your fortress so long ago. This means that if you walk far enough in almost any direction you're going to get a great view.
The shopping center had lots of French bakeries and high end designer shopping, and you could walk one side to the other in about 15 minutes. It wasn't big. I went and found all the sights I was planning to, including things off the edge of the cliff. The Notre Dame Cathedral was an easy stop too.
The ducal palace had a couple guards outside of it that were patrolling with loud stomps of their boots. Every two laps, they had an elaborate little trading ceremony at the gate, then the other would do two laps of stomping. Sort of mini Buckingham Palace-esque. I didn't really see the point in it.
The Bock Casemates are a series of defensive tunnels running under or around the city. They were closed for COVID, but the entry point had a great view of the valley. Then from there I walked down the Corniche, a road that switchbacked down the side of the cliff.
At the bottom I walked a short way through the valley filled with trees around a little river.
Then I found one of the elevators that takes you between the upper and lower parts of the city, without having to go all the way back up the road. Very handy.
At lunchtime I managed to find an out of the way French bakery advertising a 6 euro panini combo, which seemed way more my speed than the 25 euro sit-down lunches that were all over the center. The lady behind the counter, when asked if she spoke English, gave a wide eyed 'noooo'. Then at the same time in our respective languages we said 'It's fine, we'll make it work'. Between the two of us and pointing we managed to get me a hot cheese and ham panini and a custard tart for dessert. I took that and a juice box I bought for breakfast and never drank over to a park across the street, and ate watching a fountain in the sun.
After lunch I found another elevator. This one was glass and made for sightseeing.
It went down to the valley on the other side of the city. I walked a short ways and found the funicular on the other side of the valley. Online it looked much more impressive than it actually was. It just went from a train stop which was kind of halfway up the hill to the street above, which meant about a 30 second ride. So I rode it up, and then right back down again.
It was getting to be late afternoon and I had done basically everything on my list. I found a sticker at a souvenir shop, and headed for the train station. I have no idea if I bought the right ticket or not, but no one asked for it on the way home, so it was a moot point.
I had another nice evening walking around the old town in Trier to see the cathedral and Porta Nigra all lit up one last time, and got myself a plate of pasta at the Italian restaurant right around the corner from my hotel.
Even though I didn't get a stamp in my passport, Luxembourg City was well worth the 2 hour round trip.
