Luxembourg

Back to Luxembourg and our first Christmas market

B Byrd

— 4 min read
Back to Luxembourg and our first Christmas market

On Tuesday, we headed into Luxembourg for the day (we were staying just across the border in Manom, France as it was much cheaper). We had picked up our new hire car after leaving Germany and crossing into France the day before.

Our new car... our last one was 2500km overdue for a service.

At the recommendation of our friend Francisco, we headed to one of the park and ride areas before taking the bus into the city. Public transport (and parking at the park and ride) has been free in Luxembourg since 2020 — it's great!

When we hopped off the bus, we just so happened to be right outside a Christmas market (Francisco told us later they had set up in three locations this year — including one with an ice rink which we saw later). A and I were quite excited by this as we'd had a few false starts with Christmas markets so far (eg. closed for "Dead Sunday" when we'd hoped to go with Bree and Lucas).

We had a lovely wander around, ate our (pre-packed) lunch, and purchased some magenbrot (A had been hunting it for some time after having it with Donna and Matthias) and other treats. J also tried his hand at fishing 😁.

J's fishing game winnings.

Then we headed up the street, past another Christmas market, to the local library for a quick rest before meeting Francisco and his youngest son, L. They took us on a lovely walking tour of the city, including some spots Francisco had last shown us over 16 years ago as well as some cool additions.

Palace of the Grand Duke.
Overhead bridge between the Chamber of Deputies (Luxembourg parliament) and government offices.
Headquarters of the Pirate political party.
Looking down from the old city wall.
Those brave enough to stand on the glass on the new panoramic bridge/lookout.
J was keen on demonstrating his bravery.
Inside the elevator.
The elevator heading back up to the bridge/lookout.
Ice rink at another Christmas market.

After a lovely time touring around, we headed off to have dinner at Fransisco and Elaine's house. We'd last seen them when we were living in England, and had never met their two younger children. Their eldest, S, was just a baby when we last saw her, and is now just a few years off finishing high school (Luxembourgers don't finish high school till 19... partly as they need to learn FOUR languages while at school)!

We had a wonderful dinner (including scrumptious chocolate-focused desserts by S), and lovely long chats catching up with Francisco and Elaine. This was facilitated by the disappearance of F and J to go discuss/play computer games with M and L. It was a great way to finish up our brief return to Luxembourg.

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