Luxembourg (the photogenic) City

We left Maastricht Station at 7:48am and arrived in Luxembourg City just after noon. We were leaving the next day at 1:45pm. I think we all wondered whether 1 day was going to be enough to see the city. After about 10 minutes (maybe a lot less...walks seem longer when you don't know where you're going) of walking away from the station, it got really pretty. I really wondered then if 1 day would be enough.

Luckily, Luxembourg City is really small. Because we just wanted to see the older parts, take in the (tons, and tons, and tons) of views, 1 day did end up being enough. I'm sure you could spend several days there: see some museums, sit for a while at one of the tons of good spots with a view, see more of the downtown, do some shopping. But we knew we had 1 day, so it was fairly non-stop once we arrived. And we all left feeling very satisfied with our trip.

The "we" I speak of is, of course, me and Michel, but also Michel's mom (Mary) and stepdad (Steve). They spent a few days with us in Maastricht before we all headed to Luxembourg together. Showing them around our current town was lots of fun, but Luxembourg City was a very cool end to our visit with them.

Our trip from Maastricht to Luxembourg took us through all 3 Benelux (BElgium-NEtherlands-LUXembourg) countries in one day. Once the train left Liege (Belgium), the ride itself was really scenic all the way to Luxembourg.

I have to mention how great our little hotel was. It's in a 200 year-old building that has been renovated to be modern and comfortable, but still retain so much old character. It's very centrally located for walking around the older parts of town and it was very pretty.

Plus, it's very close to some really delicious food (which I'll describe later). It's La Pipistrelle B&B Hotel in Grund.

We started our walk with the goal of seeing the Lower Town of Grund, which it turns out we had already mostly done, Grund is just smaller than I expected.

We walked across the canal pictured above, and ended up going up a fairly high hill. At the top was a very cool part of the old Fortress with amazing views of even more of the old Fortress, the Casements du Bock.

Turns out, the Casements du Bock were the other thing we had as a "must-do" that day so we headed back down through Grund with the intention of taking the elevator up to the city center (our hotel was steps away from it, hooray!), and then on to the Casements.

We walked through a bit of the city center, but found it was mostly shopping so we continued through to the Casements.

You can pay for a guided tour, or see yourself through the tunnels, and we chose the latter.

There's so much of the tunnels still intact, it's definitely something you have to do if you're in Luxembourg City.

Actually, there's so much of the old Fortification walls in this city compared to the others we've been in. When you're up on top of the Casements, you can get a really clear picture of how the Fortress was set up and where the walls were because so many of them, and the towers, are still in tact and visible. I love the remains of the walls in Maastricht, but Luxembourg City definitely wins that battle. It helps that the city has so many different levels, so you can see from above and below.

Back to our walk through the Casements, we just walked along the tunnels, peeking out the many holes for amazing views of the city.

Then, having accomplished the 2 things on our list for the trip in only a few hours, we headed down to the Clausen neighbourhood. We were informed, by the very nice lady at our hotel, that Clausen is the happening neighbourhood for food, drinks, nightlife. We weren't exactly looking to party, but were looking for food and drinks.



The entrance/exit to the Casements is on the upper level of the city, and Clausen, it turns out, is down a hill to a lower part of the city, which is on the same level as Grund, but there is a large hill to go up and then down between Clausen and Grund as well. It's a very pretty little neighbourhood and the main street with all the restaurants/bars is very cool.

The main street in Clausen

We sat for drinks at one place, but it turns out they only serve the one beer they brew and that beer is terrible. So, those who drank beer (everyone but me) finished their drinks and we headed back to Grund for dinner.


Here is where I must rave about Scott's Pub. I know, it doesn't sound very European or fancy or whatever, but if you are in this city, GO TO SCOTT'S PUB! First of all, it's in a perfect spot in Grund, right along the canal and at the little bridge. Second of all, it has a huge patio. Third, and most importantly, THE PIZZA! I have no pictures of the 3 pizzas we ate there, because they disappeared in minutes. We all shared one for lunch, and then shared 2 more for our appetizer before dinner.

Scott's Pub and their huge patio

GET THE FLAMMEKUCHE PIZZA! I know, there are a lot of caps happening, but seriously. This pizza is amazing. Apparently it's a traditional Luxembourgish pizza, and it's also delicious. We had one for lunch and one before dinner. We also tried the Paysanne pizza and it was also delicious. I feel I have raved enough about this place, so I'll now direct you to their website so you can plan which pizza (the Flammekuche) to get when you visit: http://www.scotts-pub.com/our-card.html

The view from the Scott's Pub patio

Oh, also though, the servers were great and they all seemed to speak English (which was nice for us).

So after our pizza appetizers, we headed over to the pub next to our hotel. It sits between the hotel and the tunnel to the elevator, and it's called Updown Bar...yes, it's cute.

We all got burgers and these were also amazing. They were HUGE! I had to give up on eating it with my hands pretty early on, it just got too messy. But it was so good.

I know that neither of the places we ate are going to show up as 5 star restaurants, but the food was amazing and for us, these restaurants are a must-eat-at if we ever go back to the city. Okay, enough about the food.



The next morning we had a delicious breakfast at the hotel then headed out for one more walk. We started at a place we hadn't been yet, and it turns out it's a major walking tour in the city (the Wenzel Route). And it really is beautiful. More walking along old fort walls with great views of basically everything.




Whether you're in Grund or up above looking down on it, the views are gorgeous! I think Luxembourg City is the coolest city we've visited, at least for how much natural and old eye candy there is.

The travel buddies liked it a lot too!

Since all the info signs at various historical spots in the city are in French, Michel is the one to ask if you want some information about the history of all the things that make the city pretty.

I feel like most people wouldn't visit Luxembourg as their only European destination in one trip, but if you're in Europe and you could fit in a day in Luxembourg City, you should. And make sure you have the battery power to take hundreds of pictures.