Luxembourg

Over the weekend we drove to Luxembourg. Just to clear things up, Luxembourg is a country which has a city in it called Luxembourg too. Luxembourg city is actually the capital of Luxembourg. A little confusing. Luxembourg is a very small country, one of the smallest in Europe but it has much to offer. It's the only remaining Grand Duchy in the world (a country whose head of state is a Grand Duke or Duchess). It, like all land in Europe, has passed through many hands but is currently an independent state. We only had a 1 1/2 hour drive up to Luxembourg city, where we stayed at the Hilton our first night. We had Indian food and looked around the city center a little, but it was way too cold to stay out for long. In the morning we headed back into town and explored the city. It's very small. We were surprised how short a time it took to see the main tourist attractions. We saw the cathedral Notre Dame, the Grand Duke's Palace and the Adolphe Bridge. We also stopped at an indoor farmers market which had a huge variety of fruits and vegetables plus a beautiful selection of tulips. It was raining a little, and again very cold, so we bundled Jay up and put his rain hood over the stroller. The window kept fogging up and Jay could hardly see anything. Poor kid. He must think we're crazy. We really liked the Duke's palace. It was very impressive. The light colored rock accented with blue trim is quite regal looking. The whole city is clean and inviting. We just can't stop commenting on how much different northern Europe is from southern Europe. After checking out the city we went to a huge shopping mall to get out of the cold for a little while. The biggest grocery store I've ever seen took up about half the mall. We had pizza and looked through the discounted clothes at H&M and Zara but then we realized paying in Euros pretty much cancels out any sale price.
After getting warm and doing a little window shopping we headed to our next destination, the town of Vianden. Vianden is well known for two things. First, Victor Hugo (French writer/poet of Les Miserables and Hunchback of Notre Dame) lived there during his exile. Some even claim he wrote Les Miserables while living there, but we don't know for sure. Second, the city is well known for the beautiful castle that watches over it. The Vianden Castle was constructed between the 11th and 14th centuries. It is one of the largest and most beautiful castles in Europe. It was fun to see it because it was actually used as a residence, unlike many of the other castles we've seen over in Europe which were solely used as defensive castles. Another great thing about the Vianden Castle is that it was restored by the Grand Duke of Luxembourg in 1977. Seeing it really gives you a glimpse into what life was like back in the gothic/romantesque period. The restoration was very thorough and we truly enjoyed touring the castle. Even antique (VERY antique) furniture was found from the 11th - 14th centuries and set up throughout the castle. We're so glad we stopped into this little town. We probably never would have known about it if a friend hadn't recommended we go there. The only downside was that we couldn't take our stroller itno the castle (castles aren't exactly stroller friendly) and Jay wanted to crawl around SO badly. The little stinker still refuses to walk. He can do it, we've seen him several times, he just chooses to crawl instead. He's very fast and I guess he figures there's no use in walking. If he only realized we would let him down to walk/run around a little if he walked. Crawling just doesn't work as well when the ground is freezing cold and filthy dirty. I know people keep telling me I should be happy he's not walking yet because it will make things even harder once he does, but come on, I know there will be many benefits too. At least I can be sure that Jay will have excellent hand/eye coordination and the left and right sides of his brain have had plenty of time to work together. Oh well, soon enough I'll be missing my little crawler. The great thing is that he is a wonderful little traveler, which makes it easy for us to go see the country while we're here. We sure love our little pal.