Last Minute Weekend Plans

I actually got a few days of hard work in this week. The week actually went pretty fast. On friday morning I realized that I wasn't sure where I was going this weekend. Long-range trains (paris or rome) are hard to book last minute along with a hostel, and I could probably find a hostel when I got their, but I'm lazy.

The result: Luxembourg

I got up super-early and took about 4 trains to get there. but it was worth it. I spent the first part of the day wondering around the outer ring of the valley. The whole city use to be a fortified valley. Many of the structures were destroyed over the past hundred years because the city was growing. But a few of the important forts are still intact and the walls of the valley still remain. In the early afternoon I visited one of the Casements (basically a fort that was build into the valley walls) apparently at one time their were tunnels at one time connecting most of the city that safely allowed passage under streets and out of casements if the aboveground escape was cut off.

Some of the stairwells were super-scary and slippery. I also think they were built for little people because my shoe did not fit on them. The casements were really cool but they were hot and phyisically demanding, and I was getting tired. The middle of the day was basically spent sitting around in the middle of town watching poeple. All of the signs were either french or german or both, so I really couldn't understand anything, but it was really beautiful. I walked past the Dutchy Resident (the monarch of luxembourg). There was a gaurd in front in full military get-up with a sweet rifle. I felt really bad for him though because all the japanise tourists were taking pictures with him.


This is the Dutchy palace, its kindof hidden in the middle of a number of buildings, but it is pretty big and has a lot of frilly gold and fancy exterior add-ons. Apparently the current monarch has a teenage daughter that is super-popular. I was going to ask her to marry my if I saw her, but no dice. I was kinda upset that I couldn't stay in Luxembourg for longer because Bryan Adams was playing that night in the village square. But I wanted to see the bottom of the valley, then another 5 hours on the train home so I could get up early on sunday.