The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg

Entering the Grand Duchy.

On our way to Belgium, we made a quick detour through the small independent nation of Luxembourg.  With Liechtenstein ranking so high on our list of favorite countries, perhaps another small, long-named nation beginning with "L" could be a cool place.  It is only 998 square miles big and lies on the cultural divide between the "Romance" empire (France, Belgium, etc) to the West and the Germanic Empire to the East, which provides both its official languages (French, Luxembourgish*, and German) and its culture.  It is extremely modern, and actually is a very rich and clean place, with the highest Gross Domestic Product per capita in the world.

* not offered in American High Schools

 

Does Duke live here?

Generic European Patios

Luxembourg is described as being a "parliamentary representative democracy with a constitutional monarchy."  I'm not sure exactly what that means, but it is ruled by GRAND DUKE.  Which prompted me to ask the blatant question, is he related to our own Coach Carl "Duke" Iverson?  I would have to see...

Luxembourg City does have a cool valley running down the middle, ancient walls, and 17km of underground tunnels.

Here is the square... but where are all the people?

We stayed in the city for about an hour.  We toured the sites, took a few pictures, and got back on the road.  I would make this blog more extensive, but I don't want to work on it longer than I was actually in a place.  We checked out the main square - which was a little like its description (square) - kind of just a generically European place.  Basically, my impression of visiting Luxembourg was that it was a rich place filled with bankers and diplomats, but there isn't anything really spectacular about in general from a tourist standpoint.  If you want to check off another country, stop by, grab a cappuccino in a caffé, but save the bulk of your time for the surrounding countries.  

"I DO NOT KNOW"

~ J. Twice