The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (the actual name) is a small country hanging on the tip of Belgium, wedged between Germany and France. It has a complicated history involving mostly being controlled by it’s immediate neighbors and Holland. The official language is Luxembourgish, which lies in the Bermuda triangle of French, German and Dutch.
Luxembourg has a population around 630,000. Due to its success in the banking industry, it also has the highest GDP per capita in in the world: $128,000 presently, which is 20% higher than second place Ireland and 70% higher than the US.
Luxembourg is experimenting with free public transportation throughout the whole country. Since 2020, trains, buses, trams, elevators, they are all free to everyone. (Except First class seating on trains, I found out….) Transportation as a human right? Or also a way to entice the 200,000 cross border commuters (46% of workforce) to leave their cars at home.
A lot of Luxembourg history (European history in general) has to do with wars, forts, city walls and large churches and cathedrals.
Vianden Castle
One of the most imposing fortifications we have seen. Vianden Castle is relatively tall and perched on a commanding hill overlooking the walled city of Vianden, near the border with Germany. It started as a small Roman fortification and was built up over the years. It fell into disrepair, at one point in the 1800 it was purchased by a count who sold off bits and pieces to make money. In the 1970’s restoration began to bring it back to it’s 14th century Gothic incarnation.
Luxembourg City
The city sits above the confluence of two rivers. Over time the city was heavily fortified. Eventually, much of the fortifications were disassembled in the 1800’s in conjunction with Luxembourg gaining autonomy, and agreeing to be a neutral country in perpetuity. Perpetuity didn’t last long. Luxembourg was overrun by Germany in both WW1 and WW2, so Luxembourg joined NATO, and was a founding member of the EU.
Diekirch
Diekirch is a quaint town and home to a WW2 military museum. It is a medium-sized museum with a large-sized collection of artifacts from World War II. So many artifacts that it is hard to focus. Includes both German and Allied equipment I get the feeling that to this day, if anybody finds an artifact, they give it to the museum and it ends up in one of their already-full display cases. Every weapon and associated ammunition, uniforms, cook trailers, mess kits, They do have a lot of period vehicles, both German and Allied.
Next up, Belgium. Home of waffles, chocolate and beer. We won’t be drinking any beer, so to compensate, we plan to eat extra waffles and chocolate.
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