A little country called Luxembourg
Recently I spent the weekend in a place you may not have known exists: the little country of Luxembourg.
This petite, landlocked, western European nation is bordered by France, Belgium, and Germany — and to be honest, is often eclipsed by its larger, better-known neighbours.
I liken Luxembourg to the little guy in your high school who was lost amongst those broad-shouldered, letter jacket-wearing jocks. The jocks are the literal and figurative big men on campus — everybody knows their name and their modus operandi — while the little guy, not necessarily unpopular or ungainly per se, semi-languishes in relative obscurity. You may know he exists, but you don’t pay him any attention… Until the one day you find yourself more intimately acquainted with him and realize he is pretty cool after all.
Such was my experience with Luxembourg. I had heard of it, sure, and even planned to go there last summer when I was in nearby Paris. But then travel fatigue set in and I decided I couldn’t be asked to leave my comfortable pied-a-terre in the city of lights.
Luxembourg City is leafy, green, and hilly, the latter meaning the city is divided into upper and lower sections. Despite the foreboding skies the whole weekend I was there, many meandered about town on foot or by bike. On our first day, our group was led through the Bock casemates, the network of ramparts and underground tunnels that provided a defence for the city in times of combat. From the walls there is a view on the toy-like lower city.
On a walking tour of the city, Brigitte, our lovely representative from the tourism board, explained Luxembourg’s interesting history, demographics, and political situation. The only remaining grand duchy in the world, it has a duke as its head of state, and with only 520,000 inhabitants, the population of the entire country of Luxembourg is only equivalent to that of what would be considered a mid-size city in Canada or the United States. The official languages are French, German, and Luxembourgish (which, to my untrained ears, looks and sounds like a cross between German and Dutch).
I’m told that Luxembourg has a number of great hikes, but for the less adventurous there are circular paths like the Wenzel walk, which will take you in and around the capital city in about two hours or so.
Interestingly enough, Luxembourgers (fun to say, right?!) are in the minority in their own city: nearly 70% of people working here are foreigners. Known as frontaliers, these people actually live in France, Germany, and Belgium, but commute to Luxembourg City every day to work! I learned that the high salaries in Luxembourg attract workers to the country but the high housing costs often discourage them from living here. Nearly 50% of these day commuters are from France, which means that French is usually the de facto language of commerce in the city.
However, to be completely honest, there’s no compelling reason to visit Luxembourg. It is a tiny European country with pretty cities, nice restaurants, and beautiful nature, but devoid of the sexiness and big city hustle-bustle its nearest neighbour Paris is known for. But then, as Serge, another rep from the tourism board tells us, that’s the whole point. Luxembourg is a relaxing add-on after a hectic, sightseeing trip to Paris (2 hours away by high speed train) or Amsterdam (4 hours away by high speed train). Most of Luxembourg City can be seen in a leisurely day or two — there’s none of the travel guilt or obligation that comes with visiting a huge metropolis jam-packed with lots of checklist-worthy stuff. So, while I wouldn’t fly all the way to Europe from the U.S. or Asia just to see Luxembourg, I would definitely combine it with a trip to France, Belgium, Germany, and/or the Netherlands. Road trip anyone?!
