Since Luxembourg is only 45 minutes away by train we decided to go there for a short while.
It is a beautiful, clean very busy city. Interestingly it has the second highest GDP per capita in the world. It also has very high rentals and about 70% of the workforce live outside of Luxembourg and commute in daily, just like our hosts.
A dear friend asked if Luxembourg looked so beautiful as it had been rebuilt after WW2 like so many other European cities. The answer is no. Luxembourg was annexed by the Germans in 1941. Luxembourgers were then forced to serve alongside Germany. I found this website so very interesting and will lookout for other videos by this person as we visit other countries.
Some other interesting facts I learnt about Luxembourg are:
- It has three official languages, French, German and Luxembourgish. Adu can speak great German and moderate French and could not understand the Luxembourgish on the train.
- The cuisine is a mix of French and German
- Luxembourgers own the most cars in the world, with an average of 647 car owners for 1000 inhabitants.
- Luxembourg produces award winning wines.
- It had the first EU leader to marry a same-sex partner
- The restaurant Chiggeri has the world’s longest wine list with over 1746 labels. This allowed it to get into the Guinness Book of world records in 2009.
Because we knew we would only be there for a short time I chose one thing I wanted to see, knowing we may see others on the way to it.
I wanted to visit Le Chemin de la Corniche, also known as Europe’s most beautiful balcony. It has the most stunning views of the lower town, down to the Altette Valley and the Grund. The cliffside is also incredible and this was actually part of the city’s ring wall which was a defence wall for the inhabitants of the valley below.
Some other photos taken around Luxembourg are also included. It is very much big city and skyscrapers mixed with older buildings. It was a very grey day and then a little bit of sun came out and then it poured and poured on us!
