Luxembourg – June 2009

Lank Luxembourg

The Guinness

I stumbled on Oscar Wilde’s Bar.  It didn’t take long for me to decide to go into the dry bar as I was getting pretty wet wandering around in the rain.  What a wise decision.  It was just five minutes before a rugby match started on the TV – the British Lions versus the Cheetahs (a great combination of team names!), one of their warm up matches on their tour of South Africa.  The Lions scraped a 24-22 win.  I sat at the bar and soon got talking to the Mark, man next to me, an ex-pat and ex-president of Luxembourg Rugby Club and a Northampton supporter.

 

He was kind enough to talk to me, even though my team, Cardiff, had beaten the Saints in the semi-final of the EDF energy cup which I had seen a month or two earlier at Coventry’s Ricoh arena.  It was a good couple of hours and at half time I explained to Jan, the owner, what I was up to and she poured me another Guinness and picked out the next destination – Berne, Switzerland.

Oscar Wilde's Irish Pub

Getting There and around

I calculated that this trip in total involved 34 legs of transport via six countries, all in search of a pint of Guinness!  I’d had business meetings in Gothenburg, Sweden and in Brussels Belgium and combined them with the trip to Luxembourg.  First I flew to Gothenburg, then took the train down to Brussels including an overnight leg from Copenhagen to Cologne.  After my meeting in Brussels I took a train down to Namur in southern Belgium and stayed there a night before going to Luxembourg.  I was away for some nine days and in Luxembourg for less than 24 hours.

The ups and downs of Luxembourg

Team Makeup

There was just me on the Luxembourg leg of the journey.

Accommodation

In Luxembourg I stayed in a large newly built youth hostel next to the river with a couple of hundred beds.  With lifts, Wi-Fi, a restaurant it had all the mod cons.  Even the shower worked.  They had been fully booked the previous night so I had had to stay in the Youth Hostel in Namur. 

Luxembourg City

Food

I’d eaten well in Sweden and Brussels but it was downhill from there.  In Namur I had to resort to chips from a chip shop followed by a bottle of Trappist beer back at the hostel.  In Luxembourg I ate in the hostel refectory; an appetizing salad, chicken dish and a banana for desert for €10

Sightseeing highlights

Not many if I was being honest.  For part of the afternoon I explored the lower parts of the city, the pretty areas in the ravines.  There was a row of street stalls with artists displaying their wares but in the rain I was the only visitor.  Later in the day I walked around the lank streets of the town but it wasn’t the weather for doing much sightseeing.

Quirky moments

That evening, in one of the city squares, a brass band played under an awning with no more than five people watching and sheltering under umbrellas.  A day’s rain wasn’t going to put them off.

Getting talking to Father Christmas, or a gentleman who looked just like him, at the bus stop at 6.30am the morning I was heading home.  He was off for a day’s walk and looking at the badges on his rucksack he’d had a lifetime of walking behind him. 

Lasting Memories

Wet feet – it rained most of the day I was in Luxembourg.  I can’t remember the last time my feet were this wet.  It wasn’t so much the fact that it was raining, I think it was the cobbled streets of Luxembourg that retained the water and squished it up into your shoes.

Yes, it was still raining!

Out of the City

Most of this trip was actually spent out of the city, just getting to Luxembourg.

Faroe Islands - July 2005

Footloose in the Faroes

The Guinness

My research on the Internet before I left home led me to believe there may be a pub selling Guinness in Torshavn but that proved to be a false rumour.  Fortunately for us, a kind sole called Henrik and his wife Lene invited us all around their house for Guinness they have brought over especially for us, all the way from Denmark.  Their kindness meant I didn't have to drink my 'emergency bottle' that I had brought with me.

Enjoying a Guinness with Henrik and Lene

Henrik picking out my next destination - Vilnius

Getting there and around:
One reason for waiting till July to go was that not only was it warm but we could fly from Stansted direct to the Faroes with Atlantic Airways, landing on what is probably the only flat piece of land around. We hired a car for a few days but that's an expensive option so took it back and used the good public transport system - coaches and ferries and even a helicopter at one stage.

The helicopter taxi

Team makeup: 
A great turn out of Dave, Pete, Lynne and Paul..

Accommodation
Youth hostels at four different locations.

The only Youth Hostel with a turf roof I've ever stayed in.

Food

Not the highlight of the holiday that's for sure.  We self-catered a few nights and had some mediocre food other nights.  I gave the whale meat a miss. 

Sightseeing highlights

So many on this trip. The bright green scenery was spectacular. Massive cliffs, no trees, sea birds, houses with turf roofs.

The historic part of Torshavn

The tiny Mykines Island where we happened upon a folk festival.

Kristian Blak and others jamming at the Mykines Youth Hostel

The annual parade where the Prime minister gave a speach and people wore traditional costume.

Out of the City

We spent a couple of nights in the capital Torshavn then visited a number of other islands.

Village of Sandavagur

Quirky moments

The others in the party searching for a Geocache which was in Henrik's garden only to realise it wasn't Henrik's garden they were looking in, it was somoene elses garden.  

Paul with the girls outside Torshavn Youth Hostel

Lasting memories

The spectacular scenery

The visit to the Mykines Island.

The puffins,  dead and alive - the Faroese still trap and eat puffins.