Where Exactly is Luxembourg?

Throughout the fall, we're not granted many long weekends, so when one rolls around it is nice to get out of Milan. Columbus Day weekend Caitlin and I headed to Luxembourg because, well, because we're not really sure why!

I have never known anyone to go to Luxembourg before so this seemed like an ideal country to add to my list of places visited. And this makes country #25.

We flew tiny Lux Air planes to Luxembourg City, complete with free Luxembourgish wine from the kind flight attendant.

Luxembourg is sandwiched between Belgium, Germany and France. There are three official languages, including Luxembourgish, but French seemed to be the most prevalent. I've heard people say it is really expensive in Luxembourg, but compared to other European places the prices felt about the same.

There are a few things to do in Luxembourg and so on our first day we followed a city walking guide, toured the Bock Casemates, and walked through the local market. We stopped for an afternoon beer that turned into three at a fun, street side neighborhood bar.

outside the Grand Palace

at the Saturday market

Jams for sale..with no lids...only plastic wrap and a rubber band. Hmmm.

view of the town called 'the Grund'

Caitlin's cool shot of me in the Casemates

from the park

The next day we took a train and bus out to Vianden to check out the castle and the annual Nut Festival. I'm pretty sure this is the biggest day of the year in this town. But, given that it is the Nut Festival the availability of 'nut' based products seemed fairly limited. As in, you could buy the random bag of nuts and nut liquor. There were no candied nuts or piles of varieties of nuts to sample. There were no weird creations made from nuts. Just typical festival food and drink.

stained glass in the train station

chair lift up to Vianden Castle

Vianden Castle

from the castle

Nut Festival

nut liquors

selling nuts right outside his house

Our 2nd shot of nut liquor...I could only handle the cream version...Caitlin dared to try a stronger one.

A Luxembourgish specialty...essentially potato pancakes

That same day we went to see Gone Girl at the nearby movie theater since it was offered in English. The theater had the most impressive concession stand this girl has ever seen. So. Much. Fun.

#happykila

sweet and salty popcorn

We spent our final few hours the next morning back at this cute French cafe eating baguettes with butter and jam. Then we moved on to Luxembourg's noted chocolate shop for chocospoons, small bricks of chocolate in a variety of flavors and combinations that you stir into hot milk. So. Delicious.

breakfast...French style

chocolate spoon choices! too many options!

amazement.

I had salted caramel. #yum

Travel Tips:

Luxembourg is a tiny country and was nice to visit if you're in the area and had an extra day. Pretty sure a special trip is not necessary!

We stayed at the Radisson Park Inn near the train station and would recommend these places where we ate: Urban, Mamacitas, The Chocolate House, and Paul, our breakfast place of choice.

Getting to and from Vianden was fairly simple. At the train station, the information desk sold us a ticket for the entire day that works on every mode of transport in the country, for 4 euro. We took a train to Ettelbruck and then a bus to Vianden. There were special buses on the day of the Nut Festival, but the rest of the year I believe it is bus #570.

There is also bus service to and from the airport. Single tickets are 2 euro.