JPNWe arrived just before eleven last night, and it was not until one that I went into bed.
So, I literally forced my breakfast into the stomach, to wake myself up.
None of us knew what to see in Luxembourg.
And nobody really knew what Luxembourg was famous for.
Nobody thought Luxembourg was famous for anything in the first place.
But, we soon learnt that this city was registered as UNESCO world heritage site,
and we were surprised to see how beautiful the city is.
This is where the old castle used to stand.
Compared to other cities I've been, it's a very quiet city.
We walked around the city in the morning;
Chie and Izumi were continuously saying with their high toned voice
how "cute" everything in this city is.
The people in Luxembourg are trilingual.
This is because, apart from Letzebuergesch (the Luxembourg language),
German and French are also its official language.
What's more, a lot of people can also speak English,
so a lot of people are fluent with at least four languages.
I wish I was born in Luxembourg.
We strolled around the Old City.
It started to rain and the temperature began to drop;
we decided to take a break in a cafe.
I ordered a cappuccino and the guy at the shop asked me
"Do you want an Italian cappuccino or Luxembourg one?"
Needless to think, I answered, "Luxembourg one please".
It was a very comfortable cafe,
and the cappuccino warmed me up.
Luxembourg is a city surrounded by old fortresses.
The old part of the city (the Old City), is built on a large plateau, surrounded by valleys.
The valleys were used as a natural fortress and protected the city from outside invasion throughout the centuries.
Well, it was meant to protect the city, but in fact,
as I learnt later in the city museum, that it was seized number of times by various countries.
We decided to walk down the valley.
The building in the back is the Cathedral of Our Lady.
From under the bridge.
To learn about the city, we visited the City History Museum.
It was built within a massive rock and it gave me an impression that
it cost millions to build this thing (perhaps it was a national project).
This five-story building, explained in good order, the country's history since the city's establishment in 963.
Once again, I got a strong impression from the pictures and films on WWII.
For Luxembourg, being such a small country, maintaining national identity was a big challenge.
It was explained in the gallery, that one of the means to overcome this was to join the EU, to have a say in the European politics.
In fact, Luxembourg was one of the founding members of the EU ( ECSC).
Had lunch at Pizza Hut, the famous Luxembourg Pizza Hut (yeah right).
The beer was good.
Again, we walked arond the city, down the valley.
The cherry blossoms were beautiful.
And what was this?
Well, Masa knew how to use this mysterious object.
He posed like one of the characters in Japanese caramel snack called Glico.
Hope you understand this joke.
We walked on the remnants of the fortress.
A duck
A cat
Japanese tourists.
After having dinner at the youthhostel,
we went out into the city again, as we read somewhere that the night view of the city is also beautiful.
The street lamps were
beautifully illuminating the whole city.
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