Luxembourg City, Luxembourg

Visiting Luxembourg you can't help but consider how strategic the natural cliffs were, in providing an excellent defensive stronghold for centuries. The Romans built their own fortification here, but it wasn't until 963 AD that Count Siegfried built his castle. His Lutzelburg"little castle" gave the city and the country its name. Down through the ages further fortifications were built outside of the castle and surrounding communities.

During the 17th and 18th century casemates were built into the cliffs. This maze of tunnels measured about 14 miles, however today only 10 miles of these exist. The casemates accommodated thousands of soldiers, rooms for stabling horses, and supplies. During WWII the Germans occupied the casemates. We toured one of the casemates, National Museum of History and Art and rode the tour bus (the weather was not cooperating).

Today Luxembourg is known for its thriving financial and banking industry. Things are expensive, no doubt. The police and many taxi companies use Mercedes-Benz cars. The city center is easy to navigate, however due to the cliffs it is more challenging to walk to other areas of the city. My legs were sore the next day even though I thought I was in shape.

The Luxembourg people speak Luxembourgish however German and French are the official languages. If fact we were told that during a court hearing, the proceeding could be spoken in German, but the sentencing could be in a different language. We found it easier to just speak English here, it was quite confusing after a while.

Follow this link to photos of our weekend in Luxembourg.

http://flic.kr/ps/285kjt