Luxembourg

Luxembourg is a country that I think most people overlook because of its small size, yet it’s perfect. A couple of days is enough to explore the highlights of the entire country, without having to stay for too long. Some of my family members have lived in Luxembourg, although that was before my time, so I hadn’t yet been. With plenty of daily direct flights between Zurich and Luxembourg, it was a no-brainer when I found cheap tickets there.

SUNDAY, July 15th

Our departure was delayed due to thunderstorms near Zurich Airport, which also didn’t enable a direct flight path. This meant a slightly late arrival into Luxembourg, but nothing too bad. After having arrived in Luxembourg, I took a bus from the airport to the city center, and walked over to meet the host of my Airbnb apartment. The owner was still living inside the apartment, I simply had a guest room for myself. After checking in, I went out for dinner. In the city centre I kept walking past crowds of Frenchmen celebrating France’s World Cup victory earlier that evening. Luxembourg has a large population of foreign workers. Because French is an official language in the country, many of these come from France.

There were not many restaurants open on Sundays. However, I did find one listed in my Lonely Planet guide as a recommendation. It was serving German/Alsatian cuisine.

Because Luxembourg is a small country, it’s not easy to find food that is uniquely Luxembourgish anyway. Cuisine from the neighboring regions was a fine compromise. I couldn’t complain about the taste, and the prices were reasonable. It took a bit of a walk to get to the restaurant. It was on the other side of the Alzette river, away from the city centre. Because I was anyway out on foot, I walked around central Luxembourg for an hour to explore the architecture around the city.

Thanks to the finance sector, there’s plenty of new buildings being built, and older ones undergoing renovation.

Several European organizations have their headquarters here. As it started to get dark, I returned to the apartment. 

MONDAY, July 16th

Several attractions, museums etc. are closed on Mondays in Luxembourg, so my to-do list was relatively short for the day. Thus, I slept in for quite a few hours longer than I had in a while. I had breakfast at a café in downtown Luxembourg City. After breakfast, my first stop was the tourist office on central Place de Guillaume II. When traveling, I almost never go to tourist offices. I usually have a guidebook with me that more than suffices. I can double-check opening hours online and usually don’t need help.

The only reason I ever visit tourist information centers would be to purchase discount cards. One example is the good-value Luxembourg Card. It gives you free use of public transportation and free or reduced admission to a long list of places. With the price of 20 euros for two days, it doesn’t take much to make it a bargain. Additionally, the tourist office is the only place to book tours of the Royal Palace.

Next, I walked around the downtown area, with a quick peek at a WWI memorial, before stopping at the Luxembourg Cathedral.

The cathedral was built in the 17th century, and it was enlarged in the 1930s.

On the other side of the river is the Spuerkeess building, which has housed the offices of the national bank for many years. There is a small museum inside, chronicling the history of the bank, as well as local banknotes. There’s even former ATMs.

Oddly, there was a mock vault with a film room inside the museum, showing a montage that sort of glorified bank robbers.

I was done at the Bank Museum around 2 PM. Because I had booked a Royal Palace tour at 5 PM, I decided to go to a sight further away from the city centre next. In the Luxembourg City suburb of Hamm, close to the airport, lies the Luxembourg American Cemetery and Memorial. It is one of 24 American cemeteries outside of the US, where American soldiers are buried. Such Americans buried overseas are almost all victims of either World War I or II.

The cemetery in Luxembourg is dedicated to soldiers who perished in World War II. In total, 5,076 are buried at the cemetery, with a small number of them who were never identified. Most died during the battles fought as the American armies moved towards Western Germany, passing Luxembourg in the winter of 1944 and spring of 1945. The land has been granted by Luxembourg to the American Government, which manages it through the American Battle Monuments Commission. There’s a small visitor’s center here too. Several large monuments include inscriptions of the names of those who were not identified or never recovered.

There’s even murals showing the campaign battles versus the Germans on maps.

The most famous of all those buried here is without doubt General George S. Patton, Jr., who actually didn’t die in the war itself, but in late 1945. He was involved in a car accident and broke his neck, suffering other injuries that he died from a few weeks later on December 21st. General Patton requested to be buried with his men.

His grave is at the front of the cemetery, facing towards all the soldiers on the lawns below.

This is just one section of the cemetery, which continued further left and right of where I took the picture.

It is an impressive sight but also sobering to see all these graves. Many relatives come to visit regularly, and staff are on site to assist them and guide them around the cemetery. The peace and quiet is sometimes interrupted by flights coming in and out of Luxembourg’s Airport, which is just beyond the hill. There’s perhaps an unintended symbolism to that position of the airport. Visiting the cemetery and seeing the airplanes in the background is a reminder of what those soldiers sacrificed themselves for. They gave their lives so that we could enjoy the freedoms, such as travel, that we have today.

I still had some time before visiting the Royal Palace. I pondered visiting the German military cemetery that’s relatively close to the American cemetery. The German cemetery is less known, but it’s being respected and preserved just as much as the American version. The two cemeteries are just about one mile (1.5km) apart. Unfortunately, it would have been a bit too tight with the time. Public transport connections to the German cemetery were sub par.

I decided to return to Luxembourg City. The next stop became the Chemin de la Corniche, a walkway that runs parallel to the Alzette River behind Luxembourg City’s old town. It has a great view of the lower parts of town across the river, and the parts of Luxembourg’s medieval fortifications which still remain.

Eventually it became time for the Palace tour that I had booked. The Royal Palace dates from 1572 and houses the official offices of the Grand Duke, the royal head of state. There’s also some chambers used by the Luxembourg Parliament. The palace is only open for tours during the summer, so I figured I would take advantage of that.

The tour focused on the history of the Duke’s family throughout the centuries. Several rooms, including one with the thrones, were shown. No pictures were allowed inside, and to enter we had to pass airport-style security.

After the tour had concluded, I went across the river to visit the Neumünster Complex. It’s a former monastery in the lower town, which has been converted into a cultural center. It was closed, so I went back across the river to see the Bock Casemates.

The Bock Casemates are remains of Luxembourg’s medieval fortifications. Luxembourg used to have a mighty fortress on top of the cliff that divides the city into an upper and lower part. In the cliff a network of tunnels and cannon positions were dug out, which are the casemates. They were initially made by the Spanish in 1644, but have been expanded since. Pretty much all that remains is the network of tunnels, with a few cannons, not necessarily originals, left in place.

There’s decent views of the city from the Bock Casemates, but they aren’t much different than the views you find walking along the bridge right on top of the fortifications. Personally, I found those views from the top to be even better.

For dinner, I went to a Luxembourgish restaurant called Am Tiirmschen, in the center of the city. It was quite tasty food, in a pretty, traditional restaurant. By the time I had finished dinner, the sun still hadn’t set completely, but all attractions and sights had closed. I decided to take the tram to Luxembourg City’s Kirchberg district, to take an evening stroll.

Kirchberg is home to the majority of Luxembourg’s numerous corporate headquarters, and many of the office buildings are very new, with a very interesting array of architectural styles.

Among others, the headquarters of the European air traffic control organization Eurocontrol are here. There were obviously many financial institutions among the other buildings.

One of the structures that stands out the most doesn’t belong to a bank however. It’s the Philharmonie Luxembourg, where musical performances take place.

Eventually I had taken a loop throughout most of the Kirchberg neighborhood. I got back on a tram towards the apartment, to head back for the night. 

TUESDAY, July 17th

Having seen most of the sights in Luxembourg City, I decided to take a day-trip to Diekirch. The town of Diekirch is about 45 minutes north of Luxembourg City by bus and train.

The town is home to the National Museum of Military History (WARNING: Graphic images ahead). The museum is very extensive, and outside are some original tanks and artillery equipment from World War II.

Despite the name of the museum, it almost entirely deals with World War II, during which the territory of Luxembourg was involved. The country was first occupied by the Nazi Germans, who did consider most of the Luxembourg population ethnically German. That part of the population, as long as it cooperated, was spared from the worst types of terror that other European countries suffered. However, sabotage was strongly punished. Nazi Germany conscripted many young Luxembourgian men into the army, a lot of whom were sent to the East Front. The inside of the National Museum of Military History features lots of candid photos from WWII.

There’s numerous glass cabinets displaying weapons, grenades, bombs and supplies, All originals used by soldiers who fought in or around Luxembourg.

Various items used by German soldiers.

A large hall in the central part of the museum houses military vehicles from both the Allies and Nazi Germany, as well as some larger bombs.

Especially towards the end of the museum, there are more pictures of the US forces entering Luxembourg. As the fighting intensified, so did the casualties. This also means many battlefield photographs of German soldiers who lost the fight. There were also photos from the recovering of wounded or dead Americans.

Some of the exhibition rooms towards the end deal with modern history of the Luxembourg Army. It has participated in peacekeeping missions. Displayed as well were a selection of medals. As you exit the exhibition rooms, you pass under some wreckage pieces from an American B-17 Flying Fortress that was shot down during WWII over Luxembourg.

Having visited the military museum, I pondered continuing to the village of Vianden and its castle. However, I prioritized a few museums back in Luxembourg City instead. I took the train back to Luxembourg’s central station, and simply had a sandwich and a hot dog there for lunch. I got on a bus down to the Hollerich neighborhood, where its train station is home to the Museum of Deportation.

It was from Hollerich that thousands of Luxembourgians were sent east during WWII, as Jews, forced labor or conscripted soldiers. Thus, the Museum of Deportation covered some of the same topics as Diekirch’s National Museum of Military History. The museum had held its lunch break, and I was arriving as it was re-opening. One of the museum’s staff members gave me a 10-minute introduction to the place. He gave me lots of great background info to what was exhibited at the museum.

There were plenty of posters and pictures throughout the museum. It was moving to see how the deportation had quite an effect on such a small country. Pretty much everyone knew someone that had been sent to the east. Either to concentration camps, forced labor camps, or the Eastern Front as soldiers.

Obituaries for several Luxembourgian men who were sent to fight for the Nazi German army.

The museum exhibit does have a happy ending, as Luxembourg is liberated. The Grand Duchess returned from her war-time exile in England. She gave a speech declaring Luxembourg as a free country once again.

After the Museum of Deportation I went back to the old town centre of Luxembourg City. Specifically I went to the Luxembourg City Museum, which had a detailed exhibit regarding the historical development of the city. Some of its highlights included documents related to the founding of the city.

The actual year the city was founded is unknown, but Luxembourg was mentioned in a deed of transfer from 963. There’s also several relief maps showing the extent of the city throughout various stages of its history. Pictured below is a comparison from approximately the year 1000 and 1867:

 

Not far from the city’s museum was the Musée National d’Historie et d’Art (MNHA). I went just 25 minutes before its closing time. I visited the MNHA specifically to look at the archaeology section, deciding to skip all the floors dedicated to art due to lack of time.

The archaeological items on display were as old as 4,000+ years BC. They included jewelry, pottery and weapons.

For dinner I went to a restaurant serving Luxembourgish dishes, or at least so I thought. The only thing interesting on the menu were sausages, pretty much classic German bratwursts.

For dessert, I went to a different restaurant downtown for a sweet crêpe. 

WEDNESDAY, July 18th

Wednesday was quite a rollercoaster. At 9:30 AM, just before arriving at the airport, I got a text message from SWISS that my 10:40 AM flight to Zurich was cancelled. I was automatically rebooked on the afternoon flight. However, I still had to go to work that day, so this flight was not early enough. Surprisingly, there wasn’t a single Lufthansa Group sales agent at the airport. Instead of swarming on the poor check-in agents handling rebookings like everyone else, I called the airline myself.

Within 5 minutes I was rebooked via Frankfurt at 11:00 AM, getting to Zurich well in time even with a connection. I was told it would “take 15 minutes to process” the rebooking. Relieved, I grabbed something to eat as I still hadn’t had any breakfast. After roughly 15 minutes the new routing appeared on my booking online. It took another 30 minutes to find the poorly signed check-in desks and get through the queue.

SWISS had their own counters, but Lufthansa customers have to check-in with Luxair staff in an entirely different check-in line. They didn’t display check-in desk numbers on the screens either. Makes sense, right? At 10:20 I was told the “booking isn’t in the system, your e-ticket hasn’t been issued”. Another call to SWISS’ hotline, and “it is still processing” was the answer. This was 45 minutes after I had first called. I was told to go back to the SWISS check-in counters, who would handle a re-booking. Too much time had passed, and it was too late to check in on the Frankfurt flight. I was at the very least able to get a ticket for the afternoon direct flight anyway. There were no alternatives in the meantime.

With about 4 hours to go, I decided on leaving the airport to visit one sight that I missed out on Tuesday, Fort Thüngen/Museum Dräi Echelen. I looked unsuccessfully for bag lockers at the airport, so I brought my trolley along. Fortunately there’s a modern art museum with lockers just next to the Fort Thüngen, so I was able to leave the bag there.

The fort was one of many that defended the city of Luxembourg. Almost all the city’s defenses have been torn down. Fort Thüngen and the Bock Casemates are notable, preserved exceptions. Inside of Fort Thüngen is a museum about the city and country of Luxembourg. The exhibit details the country’s history as it relates to military and war.

A map of different kingdoms and duchies compromising what is today the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, drawn in the shape of a lion. The Duchy of Luxembourg is on the right-most of the three paws at the bottom.

The museum is known as Museum Dräi Echelen. That name and Fort Thüngen, the name of the fortress itself, are used interchangeably.

I did also consider visiting the adjacent art museum to kill some more time. Ultimately I figured getting to the airport with plenty of time was the best idea. Who knew if maybe more trouble would arise? So I entered the art museum only to pick up my bag. Then I got on a bus to the airport.

Over 5 hours after I first got to Luxembourg Airport, I was back to the original re-booking on the afternoon non-stop to Zurich with SWISS. The Airbus A319 was running behind schedule on arrival. However, a quick turnaround allowed a punctual landing in Zurich, and I was only about 15 minutes late to work.