Weekend in Luxembourg

Luxembourg town

Luxembourg is a tiny landlocked country squeezed between Belgium, Germany and France. Its name lends to the Lux part of the term Benelux (the other 2 being Belgium, Netherlands). It has a population of something more than 500.000 and measures 80km north to south.

Having been to the capital (its also called Luxembourg) 2 times in the past I simply adore the Grand Duchy so decided to visit for a weekend to explore it a bit further. It's an easy 4hr drive from Amsterdam.

Streets of Diekirch

This time our visit started from the town of Diekirch where our hotel was located. Luxembourg has the lowest fuel prices in the EU and clever as they are, the first thing that the visitor notices (if entering the country driving) is the plethora of gas stations immediately when entering the country! In the fall of 2014, euro 95 gas costs 1.8 in the Netherlands, 1.5 in Belgium and 1.3 in Luxembourg. I guess everyone living right next to the borders fill in their cars only in Luxembourg.

Diekirch is famous for its local brewery which produces a beer with the same name and a war museum. The city itself is very beautiful and what makes a big impression is that on the streets we heard almost exclusively ...Portuguese! Apparently Luxembourg's population is almost 16% Portuguese who arrived long time ago to work on the mines, at the south of the country.

Alzette river, Luxembourg

Our plan was to spend one day in the city of Luxembourg which we did on Saturday. We left the car on a P+R and we took the bus for a 10min ride. The city of Luxembourg is small but impressive. The old part of it is built in a canyon but since then has expanded and the nearby hills are also built. One can still visit the impressive fortifications. To the east of the city the skyscrapers of what is mostly EU institutions stand out. The wealth of this tiny nation is visible everywhere from the impressive and clean streets to the constructions and buildings. There is even an elevator to get to the old town level (called the Grund). The city is vibrant and beautiful and its worth spending time exploring it. I feel the pictures say more than my words will ever will :-)



Esch sur Sure castle

Esche sur Sure

The following day we visited the more quiet village of Esch-sur-Sure (population 314!). It stand amid forests and rivers and it is almost completely encircled by the river Sauer. It makes an excellent base for a number of hikes in the area and this is what we did. The paths are clean and very clearly marked, making it extremely difficult to get lost. The one we followed took us next to the lake Lac de la Haute-Sure. The view was simply spectacular! After a few hours of walk, full of beautiful images of forests, lakes and corn fields, we returned to the village for a nice meal into one of the many restaurants. We decided to go for local specialties, like Judd mat Gaardebounen (easier eaten than pronounced!) and Gromperekichelcher which we washed down with some nice Grand Cru beer. Well fed and rested, the hidden treasures of Esch-sur-Sure awaited us! A must visit are the castle ruins that dominate the hill top. With little effort we climbed to the ruins and enjoyed the majestic view.

The weekend was soon over and we started to drive to the Dutch capital. With a little help from the sunny and warm weather, this was an amazing weekend and Luxembourg certainly will stay in our hearts till the next time...

Thank you for reading this one too..

Colorful houses in Diekirch

The gorges. Adolphe Bridge

The Human trash exhibition

Luxembourg

Alzette river, Luxembourg

Orchestra

Colorful streets of Luxembourg

The Grund, Luxemboug

Bridge in Luxembourg city

Lac de la Haute-Sure

Castle ruins

 

Dutch/Belgian border at Baarle-Nassau

The famous café lying on the border.

Ever seen those famous pictures of a nice café lying just right to the Belgian-Dutch border, noted by a row of crosses? Well this place is no hoax and is located in the Dutch province of North Brabant but is a bit more complicated than simply the "Dutch-Belgian border".



The map-red is NL, yellow is BE-

So inside the Netherlands there are a few pieces of land that are actually Belgium (exclaves). Most of them are located some 5km from the Belgian border but a few are further inside. They belong to the Belgian Baarle-Hertog municipality bordering with the Dutch Baarle-Nassau municipality. But it gets even more complicated. The Baarle-Hertog is not a single piece of land but more than 30 of them scattered all over the North Brabant province! There are a few Dutch pieces of land completely surrounded by Belgian and all located in the Netherlands. In the picture to the left, the yellow parts are Belgium, the red Netherlands and everything around them, Netherlands.




The complicated border line

Tobacco store

 What looks like a mess, is apparently the result of land exchanges and treaties that go way back to the middle ages. The borders as they are today were defined by the treaty of Maastricht of 1834. There have been several attempts throughout the centuries to simply swap pieces of land between the two countries but all have failed.

Today I am pretty sure that no-one is trying anymore as the town is a tourist attraction and created many jobs. On my walk to the Belgian territory I couldn't help noticing the many Tobacco shops (apparently tobacco is cheaper in Belgium) and the many shops selling fireworks (!). I guess its not legal to sell that stuff in the Netherlands.


The easiest way to reach Baarle-Nassau in the Netherlands, is by car. By public transportation, take a train to the city of Breda and then bus 132. It is more than 2hr from Amsterdam.

Apart from walking around in the town in and out of Belgium and Netherlands, the place is full of nice cafes and restaurants. Depending on which side you come from, you can find products to buy at cheaper prices.



Crossing the border

Fun facts

- Few years ago Netherlands and Belgium had different opening hours for restaurants and bars. So places that lied in both countries simply closed the part belonging to the country closing earlier and moved customers to the other that stayed open

- One of the commodities illegally smuggled between the regions was butter, which women put in their dresses. In order to cope with that, the authorities made the border checks next to …furnaces!
- When in 1996 the border was slightly redrawn, one house changed countries. Because the owner did not like that, simply moved his front door to the country of his preference (apparently each house belongs to the country where your front door is located)
- A similar situation with complicated exclaves can be found in the India-Bangladesh border, at the district of Cooch-Behar
 

Some pictures



Borders

Dutch house numbering




Built in two countries

Store in two countries

Sources:
http://ontology.buffalo.edu/smith/baarle.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baarle-Nassau
http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baarle-Hertog
google maps

Weekend in Brussels

After the amazing trip in Northern Scandinavia, a weekend in the capital of Belgium, Brussels awaited. 

Having heard lot of conflicting opinions about this city we had mixed feelings and, to be honest, low expectations (which i guess always works as an advantage cause one ends up appreciating things more).

Brussels Gare Central

So we had bought tickets a few days ago but there is always a chance to show up at Amsterdam Centraal and buy tickets there. Seats are not numbered, we saw many people standing so i guess there are always available tickets. The journey lasts 2:30 hours and there are trains every hour!

So leaving on Friday evening we could enjoy a full weekend in the capital of Europe! The first impression after coming out the (impressive i would say) Brussels "Gare Central" station is that of an open and friendly city. People were sitting outside, enjoying their drinks and dining in the fine weather! 

The city itself is by no means a place one would call "beautiful" (compared to other Northern European capitals) but certainly enjoys a special character. The "European air" blowing can be felt all around and gives Brussels a special status. Worth paying a visit at the European quarters and the newly opened Parlamentarium for understanding how the European parliament works, what are the foundations of the European Union, key people and even (with the help of technology) participate in one of European Union Parliament sessions! It is for sure a "must no miss" in Brussels and tours are offered in all of the EU official languages. Unfortunately, although we really liked to visit, EU parliament is closed for visitors in the weekend. Promised to visit again on a weekday just for that!

Parlamentarium

No visitor can miss the Grote Markt, the Central square of Brussels which is (totally justified!) one of the most beautiful in the world! It is amazing how the Belgians have managed to create such a nice place but have neglected to update everything that is 5min walk away from that! Possibly Grote Markt raises standard so much that one would expect all Brussels to be like that (and of course are not!). A stone throw away lies a small alley with around 10 Greek restaurants! It surely feels like being to an island. Having tried souvlaki at the one called "Plaka" i can certainly tell that this is nothing compared to what you find in Greece but i am pretty sure it was as good as it can get. What surprised the most is that we met the owner who came to our table, sat with us and even treated us the drinks. It was certainly a nice surprise!

Grote Markt

While researching what to do in Brussels, i had looked up the monuments and came across this church, Sacre Coeur. We had no clue where is was so using our GPS navigator it wrote something around 3km so we decided to walk there. Nice walk to a part of Brussels that tourists seldom will go but we ended at some tiny church which was by no means what we were looking for! Asking locals we found out that the real thing was nowhere close but was at the other side of the city!! We finally visited but it was late and the church had closed long time ago. Even from outside looks impressive!

Atomium (Detail)

Atomuim

Other places worth visiting in Brussels is the Atomium, located outside the city but easily accessible with metro. The monument is pretty impressive from the outside but we decided not to visit as time did not allowed and we had made up our minds to visit Mini-Europe which lies close by. Its an impressive museum that has miniature buildings from all EU countries! Spent a good 2 hours in there before we returned to Brussels for our last stop, the Cinquantenaire park and the Museum of Armed forces. Having built a lot of model planes as a kid this was like a paradise! So many planes i had seen only at a scale of 1:72 or 1:48 all of a sudden were there in 1:1! This brought a lot of memories back but had no chance to complete the tour as the place closed (we entered just 15 before it closed and no-one said anything!).

In the evening after buying a bag full of chocolates and Belgian beers (the best!) we embarked on the train back to Amsterdam! This city challenged us to study and find out more about the EU, its history and the big European family.

Grote Markt

Overall it is hard to say i did not like Brussels. Even as a tourist i have visited cities that i enjoyed but could not live there. Although this was not one of my favorite places, the European Union atmosphere is very appealing and would enjoy going back there again just for that...