Luxembourg
A new country for both of us, bar passing through on occasion, we’ve never stayed in Luxembourg. As it turned out we flew out on a brand new 787-800, it still had the new plane scent.
We decided to take the scenic route so we flew into Brussels, took a short train ride into the central station and with five minutes to spare, hopped on our train to Luxembourg – European train timing at its best, it also helped that the flight was on time 😌
Although to be fair, there are two trains every hour so we were never gonna miss our train.
Once out of the city and after a few stops, we were whizzing our way through the countryside in our marginally better 1st class seats, which looked just like the 2nd class seats, with a little more leg room. The train, despite it being a three and a half hour journey had no dining, no snack bar and not even a trolley service, no food to be had, so needless to say, when we arrived into Luxembourg – we were ravenous.
On arrival into the main station we wasted no time and headed to our hotel, yes, once again we’ve moved up in the world. We’re staying at the Hotel Le Place d’Armes. After checking in, we did our usual routine, checked out the room, dropped the bags and hit the town. Lunch of course got priority – breakfast at this point was over 8 hours ago 🤔
We opted for Cafe de Paris which as it turned out was connected onto our hotel. Although it was an amazing day, we decided to take a seat inside as the outdoor seating had a longer wait. Lunch was a mix of a toasted sandwich with Iberico ham for myself, C went with just a Caesar salad which was tasty. After our late lunch we hit the streets and took in a few of the sites. The city is basically a Garrison and has been for a few hundred years. There’s the lower old town and the new upper. There are a few lifts that will bring you down to the lower parts or there are several walking options.
There’s a modern tram system with a day pass costing a mere 4 euro, great value, or if it’s a Saturday, public transport is free – now that’s how you run a city! There’s a huge amount of construction going on, apartments and hotels along with office blocks, after all Luxembourg is right in the middle of Europe squeezed between France and Germany.
Now on to the evenings entertainment. C had booked an awesome event, the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra doing an evening of movie scores. It was fantastic, they also had a large screen which showed an abridged version of the movies which was in sync with the music. It all took place in the very impressive concert hall.
Sunday rolls around and we started with an award winning brunch at Cafesino. It’s a large open room with communal seating. There was a huge choice of food available although most of it was more lunch, rather than brunch. The service was lacklustre and the coffee was from those capsules, so nothing special there. While we liked a few of the offerings, overall we failed to see what exactly they won awards for.
The remainder of our day was spent checking out a museum or two and a lot of walking – after all the weather was fantastic. For our evening meal we dined in our hotel, in the casual dining restaurant. The hotel also has a Michelin stared restaurant but we just fancied something more relaxed. The food was very good, especially my Asian inspired brisket and the service was very pleasant – from our Irish waiter😉.
On our last day, we did a little shopping and hung out in a very nice park right in the centre of the city. We also visited a small museum which was all about the entire history of Luxembourg. We had a late evening flight home and enjoyed a glass of champagne from the bar in the departure lounge which had great views of the runway.
We spent two nights and three days which was more than enough time to enjoy most of the main highlights of the city. The Hotel Le Place d’Armes has a great location and a great spot to base yourself for a short stay.
As always hope you enjoyed reading the blog.
Until our next trip, bye for now.
C&J
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