Day 73 - Monday 15 July - Luxembourg

Monday 15 July

I had originally thought of this detour to Luxembourg, but then deleted it because of lack of time.  It was only in the last month that I thought, 'if we did Bratislava and Budapest each in a day, why not?', so I changed our booking for Paris, and off we went.

It meant leaving early, 8:10 train from Gare de l'Est, so we hurried down Rue de Dunkerque and made it with 5mins to spare.  The trip was smooth, past lots of wheat fields, and even through the Champagne area, still more wheat.

 

We crossed the border, and were slowing down for a rural station and others made moves to get out. Luckily the lady opposite informed us that we had to change to a bus, (thanks for telling us, SCNF), so we grabbed up everything and climbed aboard an ordinary bus for the last 15km of the trip. Our suitcases kept sliding around the floor as we raced around corners.  Even these replacement buses had to do a detour at one stage.  The houses here all have front yards, with driveways and grass and gardens, all looking so much nicer than the apartments and occasional single dwelling in the cities.

So we made it to Luxembourg, left our bags at the station, and found the ho-ho bus stop nearby. First stop, the cathedral. Of course I had an ulterior motive, and Luxembourg has let me down on this one - the first country I have not been able to buy something nativity-ish. We looked out over the valley and wandered round a bit, then onto the next bus.  

We got out just across the 'red bridge' and did some riding, down into the valley suburb (a short funicular),  with a walk by the river, {then David realised he'd left his new hat in the train!} and finally back up in a high glass elevator.

 

 

The next bus leg passed lots of bank and Europe buildings in the new end of town, and then back to the beginning.

A double-bendy bus

So many cities are doing road works,  Some places you can hardly get round, especially at stations, with suitcases.


We grabbed late lunch at BurgerKing, and got back to the station where I read a sign that said the train we needed was leaving at 14:50, and we'd been told 15:10. I did a great panic at the luggage counter when the lady wouldn't get off the phone, but we raced down the platform, only to read 15:10 after all.

More nice gardens to look at as we rolled along, then we went through a lot of bush (Euro style), and soon we were on the outskirts of Brussels. We had to go slowly through 4 city stations before arriving at Midi/Zuid at 18:30. (Everything here is written twice, in French and Dutch, the 2 official languages, with German coming in 3rd, and many speaking English anyway.)   We were met at the door, and showed the studio. Then we went back and walked all around the station looking for food (either take away or something to cook), and ended up with scrambled eggs.