A quick trip to Kirchberg Plateau in Luxembourg.
Train travel in France and Belgium this Advent and Christmas season necessitated a sense of humor and flexibility. I knew that there were strikes affecting public transportation in France, but I wasn’t aware that the Belgians were also planning to strike the week before Christmas. The train from Bruges to Luxembourg City was supposed to involve one stop in Lieges, but when we got on the connection, the conductor informed us that we would have to take a taxi across the border due to a Belgian strike. When we got to the last stop, Gouvy, the conductor said that he had arranged for a taxi, but that there were too many people for one load, so we would have to wait until the taxi returned and then continue on. Luckily, however, the taxi was actually a mini-van and there was one enterprising young man from Luxembourg who encouraged everyone to snuggle up so that we could all fit in. We did with my daughter on my lap. This seemed appropriate as we were headed to Luxembourg because she wanted to officially get to her thirtieth country before she turns thirty in October, and I had taken her to all but one of those countries. According to my calculations, she had already met the standard, but she didn’t count the day trip from Brazil to the Argentinian Iguazu Falls as being in Argentina and much to the Pope’s dismay she doesn’t consider the Vatican a real country. She only counts countries where she has spent at least one night, which she was now going to do with her husband and a friend of theirs in Luxembourg. The taxi ride took a bit longer than anticipated, but as all of us in the van split the bill it was only E5 per person which was great as the train tickets we had on the Belgian train didn’t work on the new train. In the end, we arrived only about an hour later than planned and still had time to visit the Kirchberg Plateau and Winter market before my evening flight to Munich.
We walked from the Central train station with its Moselle Baroque Clocktower across the large Adolphe Bridge to the center of the old town on the Kirchberg (church mountain) Plateau. The first stop after a panini near the Queen Charlotte’s sculpture and the skating rink complete with a live skating bear chasing teenaged skaters, was to Notre Dame Cathedral. I’d been there once before a long time ago but couldn’t remember what it looked like; I now know why. It’s big, the stain glasswork is beautiful and the gothic figures on the entrance columns are impressive, but all in all, this cathedral just didn’t affect me with the sense of awe that many others do. From there, it was time to head over to the big ferris wheel by the park and Advent market. It was a bit too warm for Glühwein or Hot Chocolate, so we just wandered around a bit admiring the tall wooden Christmas pyramid that was in the center rather than a Christmas tree. From the market we headed back through the pedestrian shopping center and were more impressed with the sculptures as public art than the shops that sell the same stuff everywhere. Luxembourg has a number of really fascinating public sculptures. Two of my favorites (beyond the Gëlla Fra (Golden Lady) that everyone mentions) were the large seated wooden human figure that I think is supposed to be androgynous in front of the Galerie Clairefontaine. S/he reminds me of Mother Earth (the wood) welcoming and beckoning her children with joy. The other most memorable sculpture was in a now non-functioning fountain, representing the Hammelsmarsch. The fountain depicts a Luxembourgian legend in which the four musicians play a march on an accordion, a horn, a tuba and drum that leads the sheep at the bottom of the sculpture to a fair. Sheep are called Hammel, hence Hammelsmarsch. Sheep were given away as prizes at the fair. There are also two children under an umbrella in the bronzework; no wonder as it rains here almost as much as it does in Salzburg. Wil Lofy, a local artist, created the work in 1982.
While Luxembourg is known for the Grand Ducal Palace, we found the architecture of the skate park down in the citypark valley to be far more entertaining. Some of the locals were performing a few amazingly acrobatic moves a world away from the hubbub just a hundred meters above. The park is a little nature preserve in the middle of the bustling urban environment.
It was now time for me to leave for my nature sanctuary in Austria and for the others to head to a local bar. It was a short visit, but an interesting one. Sometimes the places one reads about and thinks will be interesting turn out to be not as much fun as the ones that are simply stumbled upon. I guess this is one of the lessons of travel and of life.
