luxembourg, europa's europa.

 

since i live for almost 4 years in germany, luxembourg is the first country i visited outside of it and the city of luxembourg also.  i asked myself, why here? surely there are lots of other interesting countries to see and to explore - but i was so curious to see the most richest country in the world, where people live the very highest standard of living one can imagine. - well - this is quite the opposite of me - because i am very alternative. also, as ive heard from someone working here - that social help gives an individual more or less 1,500 euros a month including payment for the flat *chokes* while in germany a social help receivers gets only about 350 euros a month (talk about rich!)

 

(i frequent luxembourg city - ive been here lots of times already - i just didnt happen to make a blog of it before because i lost the pictures coz my laptop was stolen and everything was on it, so this is the perfect ooportunity for me to present my most beloved city in europe)

 

luxembourg and luxembourg city is a dutchy - hence in english - the grand dutchy of luxembourg. it has four languages - luxembourgish, french, german and english (a little bit) - like the woman in mcdonalds always says. hahaha. it is a financial city/country - where most of its wealth comes from.

 

the country is small actually and dominated by its larget city and capital.  it is encircled by a protecting wall and viaducts centuries old connects the old city from the new city and below the two forts is a gorge which is  a nature protected area and a park cut by a small brook called the pétrusse - a very odd setting for a city. the city is spared from the bombings of world war 2, so the buildings were preserved and with its money, renovated the buildings in its state of grandeur.

 

as i everytime visit luxembourg city - i feel as though i am inside a fairytale - a forest inside the gorge where you can stroll and be amazed as if a knight, a duke, a prince or a princess would just spring out or bandits lurking in the bushes and the forest, and introduce themselves and looming above me are wonderful buildings described perfectly in a book. hahahahah i just cant get enough of it!

 

luxembourg also has one of the largest portuguese community in europe and today i think was portuguese day, because in the place guillame ii was a big celebration of the community.

 

and the main attraction of the city is the palais grand ducal - home of the duke of luxembourg.

 

there are many viaducts and bridges across the city but my favorite is the pont adolphe leading to avenue de la liberté and avenue de la gare where some magnificent buildings are and the inner city of luxembourg is.

 

it was really a strange day as we were enjoying ice cream after our tour around and relax to continue again, clouds started to form heavily above and minutes the sky opened and heavy rains poured. after some minutes it was not only rain BUT HAILSTONES as BIG AS MEDICINE CAPSULES. laughs - what a day, and we thought it would only last a minute or two but it didnt - it went on and on and we decided just to drive home because it would be dangerous to be stuck there, we flee as long as we could because maybe next comes hails as big as stones.

 

and in the autobahn, haha.. we were stuck coz lots of people where afraid to drive and they just stopped in the middle of the autobahn. *laughs* and *sighs* it was a stressy to drive as slow as turtle than driving fast with hails bumping in the windshield. but i enjoyed every minute of my visit to luxembourg city (as always)  as we drove back to germany i will never think about it only as "transit obligatoire"