Luxembourg’s Old City

Above:  Luxembourg’s old city is built on a steep rocky outcrop. The balcony-like road on the upper level is referred to as the corniche (a name often used for an esplanade in many places).

Haute Ville

Despite having retired around midnight, I woke at 0515 (or 0415 UK time).  I got out of bed around 0700 and quickly attended to issues relating to my credit card being blocked, specifically scheduled charges and guarantees relating to upcoming hotel bookings.

I had the hostel breakfast around 0800 before heading out around 0900.  I had looked up the directions to the Chemin de la Corniche.  This is the elevated walk or road that is somewhat a balcony looking down on to the low part of the city.

One thing led to another and I ended up in the Haute Ville or the old high city.  Because I had seen the city area below me and also on the ride up to the hostel, I had expected the old city to be below.  That’s despite knowing that the old city was a fortified city.  That was silly of me.

In the old city, I wandered around the various squares:  Place Guillaume II, Le Place d’Armes and Place de la Constitution which had a good view.  It was a laidback place as reflected by McDonald’s not opening till 1030!

There was not much to actually visit apart from Notre Dame since I didn’t feel like paying to enter the museums.  The only sight I had considered paying for, the Palace, was closed for a few days.

With some indecision and to-ing and fro-ing, I killed more time than I had needed in the old city.  It was nearly lunchtime and I grabbed an awesome salad at the Monoprix supermarket together with some moisturiser for my ultra-dry and now powdery skin.

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Basse Ville

I made my way down by foot to the lower city or Basse Ville and explored a little before heading to Neumunster Abbey which is now a cultural centre.

I then found an elevator that took me back up to Haute Ville.  It was starting to drizzle so I decided to hop on the bus to the main train station to check out the departure location for the train-replacement bus tomorrow morning.

With that out of the way, I thought I’d explore using the free transport.  Hopping on the tram heading south, it was somewhat industrial and houses were quite simple.  On the tram north of the centre, it was full of modern office buildings and homes were quite posh.

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Bock Casemate

I was ready to head back and found a bus that dropped me near the hostel.  En route, I found the entry to Bock Casemate which was very near the hostel but on a different level of the hillslope.

After a very brief rest in the hostel, I headed back out and paid to enter Casemate Bock.  These are tunnels with openings for cannons, dug into the rock that was under Haute Ville.  A tunnel led into a dungeon underneath the castle.

While the fortification of Luxembourg started in the 10^th Century, the casemates were built starting from 1644 during the Spanish domination.  They were later expanded by the Austrians in the 18^th Century.

After around 25,000 steps, I was ready to put my feet up at the hostel.  It was less than an hour’s wait till dinner opened at 1800 at the hostel.

I had set meal of Senegalese beef stew and rice, and it came with soup, salad bar and cake.  Not bad for a price of EUR13.

Luxembourgish

One could be forgiven for thinking that Luxembourg uses French as their only language.  Their own language Luxembourgish is close to German but has elements of French.  It was considered a dialect of German until more recent times.

Luxembourgish, German and French are all officially recognised but French seems more official in everyday signage and advertising.  And that’s despite Luxembourgish being close to the German language.