Did I Mention Luxembourg?

Yeah, it was really that beautiful in Luxembourg.

Two weeks ago, my only Thursday class was cancelled in advance, so Kat and I decided to profit from the unexpected four-day weekend and we immediately booked a trip to Luxembourg. It was all a bit spontaneous, and that was one heck of a crazy three-day week: I had two stressful exams and an EPITECH lesson, followed by Thursday and Friday in Luxembourg, then a meeting with my boss, then a dinner with the three Holy Cross girls who studied in Strasbourg last year...

Luxembourg is actually pretty close to Strasbourg--only about three hours away by train--which made it an ideal location for an overnight destination. Unfortunately, there isn't too much to actually do in the capitol (which is conveniently named Luxembourg City). However, the city makes up for the lack of activities by being quite beautiful. It's a perfect place for a short and sweet visit.

So what did Kat and I do for the Thursday and Friday that we spent there? We walked miles around the city, and we ate a lot of good food. Basically the same things we do in Strasbourg. 

Ladurée macaroons

We did stumble upon the Grand Ducal Palace right before sunset on Thursday, which was quite pretty. Luckily I had done a little research on the city beforehand and recognized it as the Palace, because otherwise we would have just walked right past it! There really wasn't anything to distinguish the Palace from another really fancy building, aside from the solitary ceremonial guard who occasionally takes a stiff march around the door. The palace is only open for tours in the summer months, so it didn't take us much time to visit it. 

One of the best things about the city is that it is built atop the cliffs of a deep gorge cut in the soft sandstone by the lazy Alzette River. This means that the city is multi-level and extremely picturesque. Our hostel was actually in the gorge on the lowest level, which took a bit of searching to find (because for a while, we thought it should have been right beside us, where in fact we were standing on the bridge a few hundred feet above our hostel). 

Kat and I walked around for hours and hours (in between pauses to eat) just exploring the city. The weather was perfect for strolling around--Luxembourg has been hit with the unusually warm winter/early spring as the rest of central Europe. As there really isn't too much more to actually say about our trip, the following is just going to be a short reel of pictures from the trip. 

One place that we did make sure to visit, though, is the Chocolate House, a cafe just opposite the Grand Ducal Palace. It has over 40 different types of hot chocolate to choose from (you should have seen the wall of "Choco-Spoons" to choose from), as well as a wide variety of cakes. Kat and I went there Friday morning for a very sugary "breakfast." My hot chocolate choice was simplified when I spotted the hot chocolate with Bailey's in it, and Kat chose the same. The Chocolate House was the last major stop on our little tour of Luxembourg City, and after another long stroll around the city, we headed back to Strasbourg in the early afternoon.