Near death in Luxembourg and Manu for the win

Part of our "plan" this year was to travel to a new place one weekend a month.  Luxembourg was our first adventure of 2014.

Here is your brief history lesson (skip to paragraph 3 of you are uninterested):

• Luxembourg is the only remaining Grand Duchy, meaning it's ruled by a monarch, either a grand duke or grand duchess.
• It is 999 sq miles in size, making it slightly smaller than the state of Rhode Island or slightly bigger than Jacksonville, Florida. 
• It has about 514,000 residents. (Indianapolis has about 835,000, Cincinnati has about 297,000)
• Capital is Luxembourg City
• Located in Luxembourg City, you will find the Luxembourg American Cemetery and Memorial. It contains 5,076 of our military dead (many who died in the Battle of the Bulge) and also the grave of Gen George S. Patton

Okay, sorry to have bored you with some facts, but hey, you are never too old to learn something…maybe you'll win a trivial pursuit game with one of those facts!

Upon our arrival into the country, through a closed border crossing station, we were greeted by a group of policemen at a speed trap.  Nothing says WELCOME TO OUR COUNTRY like a policeman staring down the end of a radar gun.  At our first "round-a-bout" there was another speed trap for visitors coming from the east (Germany).  

We were looking for the tourism office so that we could pick up a touring map of Luxembourg City. The city is full of one way streets and pedestrian only sections…not especially easy to navigate.  We gave up on the looking for the tourism office, ("recalculating" was becoming monotonous) so we opted to park and walk.

As we prepared to head away from the parking lot, we heard a woman scream.  We turned around and saw people running to the other end of the lot….so of course, we followed.  As we arrived, we discovered what the shouting was about.

Apparently this woman (around 60-65) had somehow lost her purse over the edge of this railing.  As you can see, it's nearly as tall as she is, so we have NO idea how she wound up on the other side of the rail.

You can also see that it is QUITE a drop.  She was badly shaken and two hours later was still on the scene with police staff.

That wasn't quite the "attraction" we hoped to see in Luxembourg, but it started our visit off with a bang.  Here are a few of our favorite sights from the city.

Chapelle Saint-Quirin

I love this shot because  it shows the  small chapel carved into the rocky valley wall (circa 1355), then just above the chapel (and atop the fortress wall) is housing dating from the 1800's, and finally the modern skyline of banking centers prominent in Luxembourg City.

We walked across this bridge which was completed in 1450…yep, BEFORE America was discovered by Columbus!

And of course, we had a little fun in the theatre district before we left.

Sunday evening we were invited to dinner at our friends' house.  The food is always delicious, but the fellowship is even better.  They are my French "safe house".  I can practice my language skills and not be mortified by not using the correct "verb tense" or word.  We did have a laugh about some of the English words that the French (and many other Europeans) have difficulty pronouncing.  They have found ways around saying "sheet" of paper (piece of paper) and "focus"(concentrate).  Change the vowel sound on both those and you see why.

We enjoyed a delicious cheese fondue dinner, followed by a green apple/ice cream dessert.  "La pièce de résistance" (the best part) happened after the adult dessert.  Mael was having a waffle and Manu went to the "outdoor refrigerator" (the table on their back patio) to retrieve a whipped cream container.  YUM, I thought to myself.

As he dispensed the cream, I noticed that it looked like chocolate.  Manu explained that it was actually NUTELLA!  I died and went to Heaven.  I will be buying one of these THIS week and can't wait to try it myself.  My only question was, MARCIE, why did you not learn this in Culinary school and bring this precious knowledge to me in the States???

We stayed after dinner to watch the first half of the Broncos/New England game.  It was broadcast on the French sports station and was definitely weird to hear the analysts talk about the game in French.

Wishing you a great week….maybe even one where you get to experience Nutella infused whipped cream!