Luxembourg

View to the lower part of the town with the crazy cliffs

Luxembourg was a surprise to me. I had never really had that much of a desire to go there, I think I kind of thought it would be like Brussels, a rather clinical, boring town, full of big buildings and empty streets.  I couldn't have been more wrong.  It was almost Parisian, with a dash of Dutch austerity.  We were staying in a very fancy hotel right on the Place des Armees, which is the main square in the old part of town.  We barely ventured out of the cobble stoned area.  The houses looked very French, and the food was definitely French, but the streets were so clean and everyone felt really rich.  So much less French in that instance, perhaps a bit more like the Swiss.  It is a funny little country, only 80kms long, and yet it felt that there was a lot to offer.  I think I could definitely live there if the need (or opportunity) ever arose.  They have a region in their country called Little Switzerland after all!  Though to be fair, the highest mountain in this region is only 414m high, I think to the Dutch people settling here it felt like Switzerland, to the Swiss, probably not so much.

The organ in the church - with oddly placed camera

We went to a really nice restaurant whilst we were there as well, Le Bouquet Garni, which has a star, so we booked in advance.  And it's a really nice restaurant, very cozy, not many tables, with lovely exposed beams and a view out to the cobble stoned street.  It was all very nice, with great staff who made you feel so relaxed and at home.  I was the one who booked the restaurant, so I knew how much the various menus were.  But then when they gave us the menus in the restaurant, only Dave's had prices on it.  Aaaah nothing like a bit of casual sexism.  I guess Luxembourg is still living in the olden days.

The most hilarious thing though was an elderly couple who came in later.  We were enjoying our lovely meal, having some wine and just having a great time.  Then these two showed up, without a reservation, and they had the most sour faces I have ever seen.  They were given the only table remaining, which granted was a little smaller than ours, and without a street view.  But the way they carried on, it was like they had just been dealt a mortal insult.  The sense of entitlement those people had was unbelievable.  I've never met anyone like that before, what sort of life must they have led to think that they have so many more rights than anyone else in that restaurant.  It sure put a bit of a dampener on the mood, I kind of wanted to have a go at them for carrying on like they were.  But then probably best to steer clear of such crazies.  So apart from that couple, the food, and wine, and service and ambiance was all perfect.  Would definitely eat there again, just if you are a woman, make sure you check the prices before you go in.  I wonder what they would have done if two women were dining together?

The river through the town - often flooded in the past

Weird art in the monastery - the skyline looks familiar

We, of course, did a walking tour, because how can we not.  And as usual it was pretty good, and surprisingly run by a local.  A lot of the time in non-English speaking countries it seems that you end up with other outsiders running the show. What made it so sweet was that the guide obviously loved Luxembourg so much, they couldn't imagine living anywhere else.  They took us round to this little shop where in the window there are all these weird ceramic birds, painted in various ways.  Apparently this is a thing in Luxembourg.  And then amongst the birds are photos of the royal family.  She was a real monarchist this tour guide, which I thought was quite touching, at least the way she felt about the family, quite protective.

The town had that great feel that you can get in only these tiny, rich countries.  In that the Prime Minister would often be out and about whilst the tour was running, so would come out and speak to the participants.  And there is no security to speak of, we all gathered in the courtyard of the government buildings, and you wouldn't have even known it was the centre of administration.  Even the Duke has been seen at restaurants when he's staying in town.  It's a much different feel to the UK or Australia, where you only get close to the leaders under very artificial circumstances.

Apparently there are at least 3 languages spoken in Luxembourg, the usual are English and French (they seem to be the most common), but they also have their own language, Luxembourgish, which I didn't realise.  I didn't really hear anyone speaking that, but apparently if you go out into the countryside most people are speaking that, and no English at all.

Massive vase near the court

The town itself is really interesting from a topological point of view.  You have almost two old towns, one is on an escapement behind battlements, and looks seriously hard to invade.  This escapement pokes out into this strange promontory, where they used to have their castle.  The escapement is serious cliffs, there's no way you could scale it.  Then at the base of this you have the river and what used to be the very poor part of town.  Mainly because the river used to flood a lot and it was all quite pestilential, but now it looks like a really nice place to live.  They have sorted out the flooding issue.  This flat bottomed valley stretches for quite a bit and then you have another escapement, this is where they have all the EU buildings and the banks.  It's a good idea, because they keep their lovely historical old town untouched, and yet you get the view over to these really fancy, interesting buildings.  It is certainly a town where there feels like there could be jobs.  And you would be right in the middle of Europe too, which has to be a bonus.

York

Front of York Minster

Gosh I really am a long way behind in my adventures.  We visited York last year!  Again another really pretty city, the old part of town has been maintained really well.  I think we have the town walls to thank for that.  Apparently there have been people living there for thousands of years, but it was thanks to the Romans that it really kicked off as a town.  We did another walking tour there, I really love them, and the guy giving it was a graduated archaeology student.  I'm guessing if you grow up in York, archaeology has to be a thing, there is just so much stuff to dig up.  In fact it's so popular that the students have to pay to be allowed to go on the digs, poor kids these days.

One of the must-do activities is a walk along the top of the walls, most of the walls are from the 1100-1300's, but it's really the Victorians we have to thank for being able to walk along the top.  They liked the idea of promenading around the town, so had the top of the walls widened.  They are still very narrow though, nothing like Luca say, which had walls that seemed hundreds of metres wide, there really is only a metre or two of width to walk along.  The gate houses are also very impressive, though they call them bars here, the naming convention is slightly confusing in York.

Close-up of stained glass being restored

You have to go to the Cathedral whilst you are there, or the Minster, that's really unbelievable.  Again really quite old, and there are Roman ruins underneath it, from the first Roman fortress.  You can go down into the crypt and there is actually a great museum down there, not overtly religious as most things in churches are, but just giving the history of early York and the Romans.  As you are walking around there are volunteers making sure you don't break anything or touch stuff, as there usually is.  Except every 20 minutes or so these volunteers launch into a discussion on the history for all the tourists who happen to be milling around at that time.  They are certainly very willing to engage with you as you walk around as well, so if you like that sort of thing you will be in for a treat.

What was perhaps even luckier was that they were restoring the main stained glass window at the time, so whilst you couldn't see it in situ, they had done a really good job of recreating the windows at ground level, so you could actually get a really good close up view of the panes for once.  And there was some good descriptions about what each window meant or portrayed, which is usually lacking inside churches.  They are definitely going out of their way to make the visit more than just the inside of a church.

York Minster ceiling

Statue of Constantine - crowned emperor in York

There were some great museums in the town as well, for such a little place they are certainly well-serviced with cultural activities.  There is, of course, the Richard III museum.  This is inside one of the gatehouses, so is actually pretty small and set over a few floors.  They love Richard III in this town, as is to be expected I suppose, and the group running this museum are constantly trying to counteract what they see as Shakespearean propaganda.  Fair enough I guess.  I'm not sure how successful they are at it though.  I think the best they can come up with was that Richard III was probably no worse than any other wanna-be king at the time.

If you want a less biased historical account there is also the York museum, that had some great stuff in it, back to the Roman times.  It's opposite the ruins of St Mary's Abbey which was dissolved during King Henry VIII's time.  In the same park there are the ruins of the hospital of St Leonards, again was shut down during the Tudor time.  York really did not do well out of the Tudors.

Clifford's Tower - part of York Castle

Great helmet in York Museum

Not only do they have the walls, and the minster, but there is also York Castle.  There is not so much left of that anymore, it's mainly just a tower on the old Norman motte.  But there was another museum attached to that which we didn't go into.  The motte was actually really steep and surprisingly high.  It's always funny going into these towers, because you kind of imagine that everyone would have lived in the walls, which is the only structure left, and that they would have had a big open courtyard as well.  But really there would have been a roof, and wooden floors and all sorts of rooms, it's just that none of that organic matter has survived.  It would be great to see a fully restored tower keep at some stage, just to get a feel for how these Normans lived.  I imagine the rooms were very dark, and dirty and small.  Which is a completely different feel to what you get when you visit one now.

If you want something really touristy there is also the Jorvik Viking Museum, which I am sad to say we didn't visit.  I reckon that must be fantastically touristy, like a Viking Disney World.  York was a massive Viking town, after the Romans disappeared.  It's a loooong way from London after all.  There were some old Roman bath ruins, not quite as impressive as Bath's ones.  I think York was a bit surprised to find it had any sort of baths.  They are currently in the cellar of a pub, which found them when extending downstairs.  Now they charge a couple of pounds for people to have a look at some old pools (no water remains).

Definitely worth a visit, a pretty city and more than enough to do over a weekend.