Two Days, One Night: Luxembourg

Since arriving on exchange I've been faced with a variety of trivial challenges. I blame this misfortune on the fact that the apartment I'm renting in Strasbourg used to belong to a priest that died not too long ago—by this, I mean a broken stove and oven... and heater. Luckily, after two weeks these problems are behind me and I can make my eggs in peace with the presence of Father Julian. 

Anyway, during orientation week, I managed to befriend a few girls from America and Mexico who were planning a trip to Luxembourg for the second week of January. As someone who desperately wants to make friends during this experience, I clung to the opportunity to travel with them. Soon, we were all organizing transportation, and a day later we were on a train to Luxembourg. 

Luxembourg is quaint. Being one of the richest countries in the world, it's clean yet historically preserved. We arrived with absolutely no plan on what we'd be doing that Saturday but quickly made our way to the center where there was a farmer's market. The food at the market was mouth-watering and I made an executive decision to buy the most chocolatey croissant offered—I ate it right away. We then began walking around town with a map we got at the tourist office.

Honestly, Luxembourg is great for walking. Even though transportation is free on the weekend, we never really needed it. Because we weren't part of a tour we didn't necessarily understand the entire meaning behind all of the historic buildings, but there were descriptions beside certain sites. Before leaving Strasbourg one of the only things we'd heard of was the Bock Casemates, which were closed for the month of January unfortunately. But, we still managed to walk the lower part of the city, and this lets you get an understanding of what Luxembourg had once been (featured in the first image). 

That night we stayed at City Hotel, it was affordable for an expensive city and offered a breakfast filled with a lot of bread, cheeses, and fruit. We never really went to a restaurant on this trip because of how expensive they all were, but there were grocery stores and bagel shops that made it easy to get good meals. 

For our second day, we took an hour train ride from Luxembourg City to the Vianden Castle. Since everything is closed on Sundays this was a great activity. At the time, this was the first castle I'd been to in Europe so I found it interesting, but I'm sure there are ones in Germany that are a lot nicer a.k.a. the Neuschwanstein Castle. So, if you're short on time, don't bother. We walked around it for about an hour, took some group pictures and then went for lunch at the only restaurant open in the town. 

Overall, it was a nice experience, and that evening we took the train back to Strasbourg. I think that the city is perfect for a weekend trip because you can see all of it in a short amount of time. If you're looking for a solo-trip this is probably a good place too because it feels super safe. But, it's also perfect for bonding with friends over long walks and cups of hot chocolate.