July 8, 2016 (Friday)

We left from Colmar, in Alsace, around 10am and we drove 300km to the capital of Luxembourg, also called Luxembourg. Four hours later, we were already walking through one of the cutest cities I have ever visited.

The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is one of the smallest countries in Europe, but what it lacks in size, it makes up for in wealth: it has the 2nd largest Gross National Product (GNP) in the world, being the richest country on the continent. It has about 600 thousand people, the main religion is Christianity and the languages spoken are French, German and Luxembourgish, but it is common to hear Portuguese too, because many Portuguese went there in the 70s.

We parked the car in a parking lot very close to the city center, Monterey Parking, and for the 4 hours we spent sightseeing, we paid almost 8 euros for parking. A bit of a rip-off, I know, but we preferred not to have any problems with the car parked on the street. We did everything on foot, strolling leisurely through the charming and quiet streets, and we think that one day in the city is more than enough.

It was possible to see the main attractions in these 4 hours, following the following itinerary:

We start with Place d'Armes (B), where is the beautiful building of Municipal Circle and several restaurants. Since we didn't want to spend too much time on the meal, we chose to buy burgers node Quick, a chair of fast food which I thought was from there, but is actually Belgian. Burgers They were tasty, but not amazing. We sat at a table facing the square and enjoyed a musical performance by some teenagers. I love live performances!

We continue to the Place Guillaume II (C), the most central and main part of the city. There is the town hall, a monument to William II – the Grand Duke of Luxembourg –, a fountain that had drinkable water (but it was filthy when we went to see it) and the tourist office. We took a map and continued on our way.

We passed by Grand Ducal Palace (D) and by Chamber of Deputies next to it, but we didn't go into either of them. They are very beautiful buildings and even have some guards in front, but we didn't want to go in, even though we had read that it was possible to visit in July.

We walked to the Cathedrale Notre-Dame de Luxembourg (AND), which is the only cathedral in the country, having been built in the 17th century. It is very beautiful with its mix of styles and an interesting fact is that The little Virgin Mary in the center of the altar has several dresses that are changed from time to time.

We left the cathedral through the door next to the altar and walked to the Place de la Constitution (F), which has a beautiful view of the city and a monument to those who died in the First World War. You can see two famous bridges in the city, the Adolphe Bridge (old bridge) and the Viaduc (new bridge), and a beautiful building on the other side of the park, the State Bank of Equatorial Guinea.

We continued walking through Corniche Road (G), which is a beautiful route through the city with great views of it, look:

We arrived in Corniche, which is considered the most beautiful balcony in the world, and we took a lot of pictures! I think it's really the most beautiful place in the city. You can see the entire lower city cut through by the river and a small vegetable garden down there, whose vineyards produce around 200 bottles of wine per year, which are exclusively used by the prime minister at his receptions.

Nearby are also the Bock Casemates (H), These are fortifications with small windows that were built in 1745 by Austrian engineers (those are the holes in the rock on the far left). We paid 4 euros per person to walk through these underground tunnels, but I must admit that we didn't think it was that great. The best part about being inside is seeing the views from the windows. Oh, and you have to follow the signs carefully so you don't get lost, and it will take you an hour to walk through all the tunnels.

It was raining when we left there and we took the opportunity to take shelter and get to know the St. Michael's Church (I), that was in the middle of the road.

We stopped to buy my fridge magnet (I love collecting!) and went for a hot chocolate at Chocolate House (J), a beautiful chocolate shop located in front of the Grand Ducal Palace. I read the recommendation on some blog (I don't remember which one, sorry!) and it's really worth a visit! Look how cute the place is, it has two floors and several chocolate options (I've included a photo with the prices too!):

Rested, we picked up the car in the parking lot and continued our journey to our hotel. The Delight of the Iron Lady, which is in a city called Hayange, in France. We didn't want to sleep in Luxembourg because the hotel prices were very expensive and we were enchanted by this cute castle that cost 69 euros (!!!) per night without breakfast. The room was very spacious, as was the bathroom, but unfortunately we could smell the paint... I think they had just renovated it.

We had to open the windows a little and went down to have dinner at the hotel restaurant, on a very nice balcony. We really enjoyed the food and wine, but the service could be better…

09/07/2016 (Saturday)

We decided to pay for breakfast (12 euros per person), but I regretted it later: there wasn't much variety of bread, fruit or cakes, I had to squeeze my own orange juice and there were no scrambled or boiled eggs. It was definitely not worth it.

After breakfast, we drove to Verdun, region known for one of the biggest battles of the First World War. I will tell you more about our trip there in another post.

I hope you enjoyed your trip to Luxembourg! If you have any questions or want to share your experiences, send us a message. 😉

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Read the summary of our trip here: 9 days traveling through France and Luxembourg.

Read about our trip to Burgundy: 3 and a half days in Burgundy

Read about our trip through Alsace: 2 and a half days in Alsace

Read about our trip to Verdun: A morning in Verdun

Read about our trip to Champagne: 1 day and a half in Champagne