August 21, 2018 – Tired Feet in Luxembourg

Well then. Today was a busy busy day. My mom just arrived to Paris last night, but I managed to convince her to set off for a day trip to Luxembourg right away! My feet are throbbing, which is somewhat unusual, so either I’m out of travel shape or we worked hard today. I believe it’s likely some combination of the two.

I didn’t sleep well last night for some reason, so the 6:30 wake up call was a bit of an inconvenience. Nevertheless, we stuck to schedule and were out the door by seven to walk to Gare du l’Est, the main train station for trains within France and the surrounding area. We had plenty of time to grab some snacks and breakfast before boarding the train. We never went through any security, and we didn’t even get our tickets checked the whole way. Gotta love the EU.

We spread out at a table with the back half of a car to ourselves and settled in for a pretty ride through the French countryside.

We each grabbed ourselves a Luxembourg Card which gave us full inclusive access to public transport and museums within Luxembourg City and most of the rest of the country. We didn’t have time to hit up those far reaches of public transit, unfortunately, but now we know what to do next time. We set off on foot in the vague direction of the city center and stumbled upon the Luxembourg City Museum in search for a restroom.

Though my tiny bladder is annoying to no end, it sure has forced to me check out some pretty cute places while traveling. Ha! The museum terrace provided a great view of the city.

There was also an exhibit which displayed the uniforms for the army throughout the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries. These little guys were adorable!

What I found more fascinating than the contents of the museum, though, was the building it lived in. Thought to have been built originally in the ELEVENTH CENTURY, this sturdy stone building with arching ceilings and cavernous staircases to nowhere had been reinforced and redecorated to create a truly intriguing mix of the very traditional and the very modern.

There was even a room-sized elevator which lifted us through a giant stone chimney of sorts.

The museum told the history of the city of Luxembourg and its growth and deconstruction as a military fortress. Bits and pieces of the old fortress walls remain today. More pictures to come later. Another highlight of the museum were all of the adorable miniature city complexes which displayed the city at different times in its history. Sorry, this is the only one I snagged a picture of, from approximately year 1000:

Too cute! We took some more pictures on another terrace on the building:

And then we headed off to a cathedral across the street which was holding service.

Next was the national library, which was impressively small and uneventful. The halls were very narrow, and as far as I could tell, only the first floor was accessible. There was a nice courtyard, though, and in one corner stood ‘The Wind Book, which was a large hardback left out to the elements as an art piece. I’m honestly surprised it wasn’t in worse shape.

Lunch was next, with salmon tartare and a bagel sandwich on the menu. I meant to order something I saw another customer eating, which was salmon tartare in a large salad. However, what I actually ordered was a hamburger-sized patty of salmon tartare with another hamburger-sized patty of avocado underneath, with a side of toast. Delicious, yes. Possible to eat in one sitting, no.

Then on for some wandering! We scoped out the rest of the hustling bustling center city streets before walking off in a quieter direction. The first thing we spotted was this gorgeous building.

Upon further inspection, it turned out to be some sort of nursing home! I told Mom to study up on her French and German so she could end up there in her older years.

Now, I’m not proud of it, but next I took a nap on a bench in a park.

Sorry about all the leg, haha. Mama got to read with a nice view over the canal, though so I think we were all good. She finally started getting antsy, so up and at ’em we went, stumbling this time into a ‘panoramic elevator’ which started at a large glass overhang.

Beautiful views!

Mom refused to walk out onto the glass, so we eventually went down the elevator to explore a quieter side of Luxembourg called Pafendall.

There were bits of the old fortress down here…

Along with a pretty creek running through the valley…

What we found next turned out to be the BEST. PART. OF THE DAY.

Labeled on the map as ‘foot bath,’ my mom was instantly intrigued. When she saw the slowly trickling and the stone underneath which made the water look brown, though, her instant reaction was, ‘Uh, no thanks.’ I at least wanted to read about it.

TANTALIZING? I THINK SO.

Unsurprisingly, I convinced my mom to try it with me. The water was so cold! We were supposed to walk in a marching fashion in the water until an extreme cold feeling was felt in the feet and legs, upon which we were to leave the bath to warm up and repeat several times, drying our feet with our hands rather than with towels. The tradition promised multiple health benefits and lots of fun!

Please enjoy these action shots.

And video!

It was seriously so much fun, and it felt soooo good on my tired feet. At one point, an adorable little family joined us and had me show them how to do it. So cute!

The fun could only last so long though, and soon enough we were climbing another hill.