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Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Luxembourg City, Luxembourg

The final destination of our long weekend was the small country of Luxembourg, which is a landlocked country surrounded by Belgium, Germany, and France. Our first stop was the Luxembourg American Cemetery just outside the capital of Luxembourg City.

Five thousand seventy-six American service members, including General Patton, are buried here. Most of the soldiers died during the Battle of the Bulge. It's a beautiful cemetery and memorial.


 


Sgt. Warren Muck was one of the soldiers from E Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division (Band of Brothers). Several more soldiers from that company are buried here as well.


After spending the morning at the cemetery, we headed into Luxembourg City.


Right off the center market of town is a palace, complete with royal guard, which is home to the Grand Duke of Luxembourg, head of state of the Grand Duchy. Apparently Luxembourg is the only remaining Grand Duchy in the world.


The highlight of this city for me and Laurel was a trip to The Chocolate House and to a bakery for macaroons! The Chocolate House had so many yummy and beautiful treats. Our favorite thing was their hot chocolate spoons though. They came in every flavor imaginable and were SO good. We even got a couple to bring home with us.


These macaroons? Incredible! 


After some hot chocolate, we headed down to the Casemates which is a series of underground passageways beneath what is left of "The Bock", a castle built on a promontory back in 963. We didn't know that most of the passageways are closed during the winter months, so we didn't get to explore all of the tunnels. It was still quite a sight, and Austin loved exploring it.


The views from The Bock were pretty spectacular.


After all the walking we'd done, we were ready for lunch. In Germany, we are accustomed to many restaurants being closed on Mondays, but in Luxembourg they apparently have Sunday set aside as their usual closing day. Our options were limited, so it was either dive headfirst into one of the few open French restaurants or play it safe with Pizza Hut. Well, when in Rome...

We decided on a French restaurant, and thankfully were seated off to the back by ourselves and served by a a waiter who knew a little bit of English. You know you've adjusted to life in Germany when you realize how much more at home you would feel if you were at a Gasthaus! Don & Austin split a meal of swiss fondue with a meat platter.

Laurel and I opted for flammkuchen.


Our meals were really good, however, they certainly were not as good as the very high price we paid for them. That's just one more reason we love Deutschland- lots of home style food for a reasonable price :)

After our meal, we took a quick walk through the Notre Dame Cathedral.


Overall we had a good time in Luxembourg City, but I don't think it was a favorite destination for any of us or somewhere we'd visit again. It did let us check another country off our "been there, done that" list though, and that's always a good thing!! We actually made one more stop before leaving the country, so I'll be writing about that soon :)