My head is stuffed so full of Luxembourg's history that it will soon start leaking from my ears. That's what happens when you walk around reading information signs and visiting any free museums that happen to come your way.
Rain poured down last night. This morning the wet leaves glittered in bright sunshine and water vapour curled lazily up from the pavements. At 7am the bells sounded the morning wake up call but I was already up and eating breakfast.
 |
| Morning mists. |
We walked along the river in company with Luxembourgians riding bicycles, jogging, and picnicking on a Sunday morning. The river ran briskly, encouraged by last night's rain, and at regular intervals bridges marched across the gorge on stonework legs.
 |
| Cold carton coffee. "It's not ideal, but I need my 10:00 caffiene fix." And where better than with a bridge to watch. |
There were lots of thing to see, among them: Grainskapell/St Quirin Chapel.
 |
| St Quirin's started as a pagan shrine, converted to a Christian place of worship by the Romans who were nothing if not pragmatic in their use of places of worship. The Gothic-style pilgrimage chapel was built in 1355. The roof and spire with a bell are positively modern havng been added at the end of the 19th Century. |
We passed Niemenster Abbey with it's long and varied history of destruction and rebuilding to coincide with Luxembourg's various occupations. After a breif stint as a prison and barracks it was used as an orphanage, which purpose ended abruptly with a gunpowder explosion although there is no explanation of why gunpowder was stored at an orphanage in the first place. It was a military hospital and then again a prison, most notably used by the Nazis to imprison political prisoners in WWII. Now fully restored, it serves the public as a meeting place and cultural centre. And it has impressive doors.
Steep steps led us through leafy forest to Fort Obergrunewald, built by the French in the 1680s and largely dismantled by the end of the 19th Century. It was a good spot to catch our breath and look out over the river valley and the upper old town.
If you thought we were finished with old fortifications you would be wrong: in no time at all we were looking through Fort Thungen which was built in the 1830s, demolished, rebuilt, destroyed, rebuilt, you know the drill. It was now a free museum so in I went to be pleasantly surprised by Luxembourg's history which could be summarised by: the French, Germans, Spanish all took turns occupying and fighting over Luxembourg with a taste of English and other countries thrown in. Luxembourg emerged from it all as a small independent nation, the only duchy in Europe, which was quite an achievement given how many neighbours had squabbled over it for the last millenium or so. Here's a taste of the museum.
 |
| The genuine article circa French Revolution. Hopefully not used recently but still raised hairs on the back of nearby necks. |
Luxembourg had other things going for it besides being a banking and business hub with one of the highest incomes per capita in Europe. They also had a lot of 747s, owned by Cargolux who carried goods and specialised in moving and storing precious things. The Cargolux 747s were visible from our hotel room as they took off over the city and Roger was as happy as a man in pyjamas could be, lolling in bed sipping tiny cups of tea and watching aeroplanes as they took off over the city.
Misty rain fell as we wandered out for dinner, only to realise that in Luxembourg everything closes on Sundays. Thank goodness for chain stores: Subway was open and saved us from inconveniently dying of starvation which would have dampened the holiday somewhat.
To finish, a few more photos:
 |
| I walked past the Duke's residence in downtown Luxembourg, marked by the royal crest on ecery balcony and also by two modest guardhouses and a single slightly bored looking guard. |
 |
| A heron beside the river. |
.JPG)
.jpg)
Comments
Post a Comment