More public servants than Canberra!

Sunday 4^th May

Today we have travelled across Luxembourg and back in to France on our way to Switzerland.

The town we stayed in last night was nestled in a valley and was very pretty. The train to Luxembourg ran through the town and there was a chateau right in the centre of the town. Everything at the moment is so green and there is lots of colour in the gardens along the roads. It would have been nice to spend a little more time in the area as we passed through other beautiful looking towns. This area was the centre of the 'Battle of the Bulge' in 1944.

 

Our olde worlde hotel in Clervaux.

Clervaux chateau.

The countryside is rolling hills with farmland and pine forests. It all looks very restful. The towns seemed to be quite new, modern, peaceful and very clean. I wondered last night whether Luxembourg was rich in oil deposits because we were only 30k into the country and passed more petrol stations than I could count on my fingers and toes.

Our way south took us through Luxembourg so we stopped there for a look around. 

Luxembourg is a duchy - they have their own monarchy, the Duchy of Luxembourg. 

Statue of the Grand Duchess Charlotte who ruled during WWII.
She was the grandmother of the current Duke.

 

The Palace of the Grand Dukes.

Guard at the front of the palace.
He marches about 20 steps one way,
turns, then back.
Not sure how long his shift is.

First thing we came to was the Sunday trash and treasure market. We gave this a wide berth. It’s a long way to carry someone else’s trash home.

We came across the hop on hop off bus so did a tour of the city. Apart from the old village part of town the city appears to be very modern with lots of glass buildings. Luxembourg is a major seat for the EU and there are more than 30,000 public servants, and I guess if you aren't a public servant there is a fair chance you work in a bank. Luxembourg also has the highest per capita GDP in the EU and is the seat of the law system for the EU. It is Sunday here and the banks are closed so we had no opportunity to stash away our millions in a tax haven bank. :)

There is a new section of town called Kirchberg where can be found the Philharmonic, new banking quarters, d’Coque sports arena including swimming pools and headquarters of other large organisations in the city.

 

The Philharmonic.

The city is perched high on the side of a ravine and the remains of the fortifications from 963 can still be seen. There is a lovely walk you can do that looks down over the old town of Grund - they call it the prettiest balcony in Europe. We took an elevator ride down to Grund and had a wander through the craft market. All up a very pleasant few hours in Luxembourg and a place I would come back to.

 

Headquarters of the principal bank in Luxembourg.

Looking down into the ravine.

Looking out across the ravine.

A street in the old part of town.

Looking down over Grund.

From the prettiest balcony in Europe
 - the old fortifications.

Grund.

Just a door that took my fancy.

We followed the Moselle river south and are now in Nancy, France. We tried to follow a road alongside the river but it was too far away to give us much to see so we just headed back to the motorway. We are in Nancy for tonight and tomorrow we will be in Switzerland.