I traveled to Luxembourg during my semester abroad in Berlin, Germany. My journey started on Friday, November 22nd, 2019 at Tegel Airport in Berlin, Germany. I arrived at the airport about two hours early. The plane was late coming in so we were delayed about thirty minutes. Thankfully, the flight only lasted an hour and a half. I have a good friend that I met while studying in Vienna who is from Luxembourg. She picked me up from the airport and we drove into Luxembourg City.

 

The process to find a parking spot in the city was quite challenging. We searched around for 30 minutes until we decided to drive further outside of the city and park in a shopping mall garage. My friend told me that there is an average of two cars per person in Luxembourg. I was shocked by this because Europe is very much on the environmental wave of reducing transport with cars. Because we were so far outside of the city center, we took the tram into the city. The trams are only one year old. They are super cool looking, very clean, and they even have charging ports in them. I was very impressed with the public transport. They are currently expanding the tram network in the city so there is construction everywhere.

 

Luxembourg city is very cute. Luxembourg has around 600,000 inhabitants and around 300,000 live in the city. Luxembourg is very famous for being a banking city. Because of this, people all over the world come to Luxembourg to work in the finance industry. It is very common to have people from Belgium, France, and Germany (the bordering countries) to drive more than hour every day to work in Luxembourg.

 

Our first stop in the city was the Christmas Market. The markets just opened on the weekend that I was there so perfect timing. My friend pointed out all of the Luxembourgish specialties that I should try. I got a waffle with chocolate and whipped cream that was very tasty. I also got some hot chocolate to warm up and for dinner, Kniddeln which is basically a larger buttered noodle with fried pieces of ham on top. Everything that I tried was very tasty. My friend mentioned that Luxembourg does not have that many tourists so most of the people at this Christmas market were locals. This was very nice to experience, knowing that the market is more for the locals to enjoy rather than a tourist trap.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

                                                                                            Christmas Market

​

                                                                                                                                                                       

        Christmas Market                                                                                                                                            Kniddeln

​

We then walked around the city a bit. The city used to be a walled city, and these walls still remain today. There is an upper and a lower portion of Luxembourg city. You can get a great view of the lower portion when you stand on top of the city wall.

 

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

                                                                                               Luxembourg City

 

There are so many old structures, painted buildings, little churches, willow trees, rivers, and flowers. The whole city is so pretty.

 

After a great day of exploring, my friend dropped me back off at my hotel and then I went to bed.

 

The next morning, I took the bus from my hotel to the main train station. I then took a train to where my friend lives, basically in the middle of the country. She picked me up at the train station and drove me to her house. She lives on a farm and has 7 horses, some dogs and cats, and over 100 cows. Most of the cows are for milk. What I found cool is that her grandparents and aunt and uncle live right across from her. All of the homes are connected and there is this little courtyard where they park. Just down the street from her lives the Duke of Luxembourg in his castle. We drove past the castle so that I could have a better look at it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

​

​

Afterwards, we drove up north to Vianden. There is this really pretty river and bridge, with many ducks all around. We had a wonderful lunch at an Italian restaurant and then hiked up to Vianden castle. The castle is very medieval looking and has gone through several renovations. One room in the castle showed pictures of all the famous people who have visited the castle. The daughter of Harry S. Truman visited as well as a First Lady whose name I do not remember, either Roosevelt or Kennedy.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

 

                                                                                             Vianden Castle

 

We then drove to the town of Dietrich, where I went grocery shopping. We also walked around a bit, another very cute town. This is the town in which my friend went to Gymnasium. She then dropped me off at the train station and we said our goodbyes. I then took the train back to Luxembourg city and then the bus back to my hotel.

 

On Sunday, my hotel was located just five minutes away from the airport, so I walked there. My flight was delayed thirty minutes. The boarding process in the airport was so slow and disorganized. When we were all boarded, we sat in the plane for thirty minutes leading to then an hour delay. Thankfully, I did not have anywhere to be.

 

I absolutely loved my time in Luxembourg. I definitely would not have had as much fun if I did not have my friend to show me around. I am very grateful that she gave up her weekend to spend time with me. We also talked only in German so this was great practice for me. Luxembourg is a very very rich country. There is no way I could ever afford to live in the city. One aspect of Luxembourg that I am very jealous of is their knowledge of languages. Luxembourg is a landlocked country, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. The national languages are Luxembourgisch, German, and French. In addition to these three languages, all students learn English in school. Every students can speak four languages... simply astounding. I am extremely jealous.

 

I would definitely come back to Luxembourg. I do not know if I would want to live or work there, especially because of the cost of living.