Luxembourg



Place de Metz



Background:  The city is the capital of Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and is located at the confluence of the Alzette and Petrusse Rivers in southern Luxembourg.  In 2009, Luxemburg was ranked with the third highest GDP per capita at $79,000 USD.  The city developed into a banking and administrative centre in Europe.  The European Court of Justice, the European Court of Auditors and the European Investment Bank are all located here.

  


Cathedral to the Blessed Virgin

 

Travels: Due to Campus for Finance, classes were canceled on January 13 & 14, so a group of exchange students and myself took advantage of the free time and traveled to Luxembourg City.  We took the regional train from Vallendar to Luxembourg, which is about 3 hours.  We met at the train station at 8 AM and waited for our train; surprisingly it was late.  We received many talks about "German punctuality" and the first train I took in Germany was late!!  We missed our connecting train from Koblenz to Luxembourg, which ended up working out well because we got upgraded from the regional train (slower and more stops) to the IC train (faster and nicer).  Once we arrived in Luxembourg, we found a map and the address of our hostel.  Luckily someone from Quebec, Canada was with us and could speak French to the locals.  We walked from the train station to the hostel and dropped our stuff off. 

 



National Museum of History and Art



After, we walked around the city taking in all of the amazing sites.  The city is pretty small with 100,000 inhabitants, so it didn't take very long to get around and see everything.  Some of the highlights included the  Cathedral to the Blessed Virgin.  This Cathedral has a late Gothic style and has various components and ornaments inspired by Renaissance style.  We also toured the Place de Metz which houses the State Savings Bank.  Later that evening, we had dinner at the hostel and hung out in our rooms.    



Hot Chocolate



The next day, we visited the National Museum of History and Art.  The museum has 10 floors and each floor represents a different time period.  Starting out at Prehistory and going all the way to Contemporary Art.  They also had an additional exposition called the Age of Symbolism in Latvia with 50 paintings, engravings, and drawings from the most important Latvian artists of the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century.   Then we went to a shop called the Chocolate House, where they sell 50 different kinds of hot chocolate.  You select your chunk of chocolate and they bring out some warm milk.  It was the best thing I ever drank!