Luxembourg City and Colmar, France

October 21, 2016

Luxembourg City and Colmar, France

We have been on the move and visited Luxembourg City and Colmar, which we are leaving early tomorrow. I’ll try and catch you up.

We took our preferred form of travel, the train, to Luxembourg, found our Airbnb and then headed out to explore the city. We had a room and bathroom in a large apartment in a nice area of Luxembourg. Other than the WiFi was iffy and the toilet was not with the bathroom (a European thing), it was fine. We only spent one night there.

We managed to walk all over the old part of town which hugs a river canyon running through a part of the center city. Most of it is on top and a small part is down along the river. There was the usual cathedral, which was closed for construction. The Grand Palace was in the vicinity so we walked over and happened to see some African dignitaries arriving and the duchy and duchess leaving amidst a lot of pomp and soldiers, etc. You need to be in a small country or in an important city to see all these important government types. Fort Wayne is not a hot spot for dignitary stops. We saw more dignitaries while living in Jamaica than we have ever seen in the USA.

We walked along the Chemin de la Corniche, which is a pedestrian promenade overlooking the river. This runs into the Wenceslas Wall, the old city fortification, where you can walk along to a tower. We then went through the Bock Casemates, which are a series of passages and rock galleries carved by the Spaniards between 1737 and1746 and used for various things from bakeries to slaughterhouse, to most recently, housing 35,000 locals during WWI and WWII. Interesting!

By this time, we were at river level and able to cross over to what they call the Grund, which is a small area of narrow lanes containing shops, restaurants and businesses. There was not much going on by the time we arrived. We did manage to find a place to buy something to eat. It rained off and on during the day but it turned out to be a good day. One day in Luxembourg is about right for what we came to see.

The main city is about 50% expatriates due to a large amount of international government work, banking etc. There was so much construction going on, you know that money wasn’t much of an object. At one point, I counted 3 huge construction cranes in my view plus others on the periphery.

The next morning, we hopped on another train to come to Colmar, in the Alsace region of France. Some of my (Carol) Swiss ancestors came to America from this area of France due to persecution of the Mennonites in Switzerland. We are staying in an apartment in a 13th century renovated house. The apartment is wonderful but not one wall is straight. It would probably drive all the carpenter- types crazy. There is a washing machine here so we got our wash done, even though it didn’t come without some stress since we can’t read French and it took forever.

The old town portion of Colmar is so charming. It is pretty much right out of the middle ages. There is a canal running through which they have decorated with flowers . . . kind of a small Venice. The cathedral was built in the 1200s, if that tells you anything. A lot of the homes and shops were wooden and have been preserved. The city managed to be spared during the wars, although this area has changed hands between the German and French several times. French and German are spoken here.

One of the surprise highlights of our stay was we ran into our neighbor, Jim Sack, who is here visiting historical sites and checking out the wine, since this area is known for it. We managed to eat lunch together and he tried to get us up to par on all the history of the area. Unfortunately, I don’t know how much we absorbed.

Again, one of the sad things we have noted, is that most of the churches here are closed or made into museums. The cathedral would have been open but was closed for practice for a concert tonight. Oh, well.

If you love to shop, this is the place for you. Beautiful clothes, jewelry, art; you name it, it’s here.

Tomorrow, it’s off to Amboise, in the Loire Valley, where we’ll be for a few days. Hoping to see a chateau or two.