In my previous posts, I wrote a lot about Africa, and it is to be continued, but now I decided to break this series with the introduction of an extremely different place, which I visited exactly 1 year ago, at the end of September 2017. On top of being completely different in comparison with Africa, or Tanzania in all possible regards: size, number of inhabitants, wealth, it is the country/city of opposites in itself, too. So now let me introduce Luxembourg to you.
Luxembourg is not a typical holiday destination; it stays very much behind compared to the others in the BENELUX. Of course not in terms of development or economic status, but of familiarity and popularity. That could be a reason why I had been so excited about it for quite a while. Others line Brussels and Amsterdam up first, why shouldn’t I start from the other end instead? So it happened that one weekend, I jaunted to the only existing Grand Duchy, and what else I could say: I loved it.
Luxembourg is the capital of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, but it reminds the least a capital. It has around 114,000 inhabitants, and I don’t think I saw too many of them. I was in the city from Saturday morning to Sunday evening, and instead of a busy, noisy, lively capital, I found myself in a quiet, almost deserted city which had a pleasant, small town-like atmosphere. I don’t mean this in a negative way, but it rather supports my view that Luxembourg is the city of opposites. But why do I think so?
Firstly, the fact itself that Luxembourg is one of the biggest financial and business centres in Europe despite its small size. Along with other banks, The European Investment Bank has its headquarters here, and it also hosts some of the European Union’s main bodies, such as the European Court of Justice or the administrative centre of the European Parliament. You can imagine how many people come here on weekdays, and that on these days, the city’s “population” soars. According to the statistics, ⅓ of the workers commute from other countries on a daily basis. Most of them come over from France, but the number of the Belgian and the German commuters is also significant. It is also because Luxembourg is an expensive place to live, and probably it’s more affordable to settle down in neighbouring countries, and commuting is simple and fast due to the excellent roads and well-built train network.
The aforementioned EU and financial headquarters are situated in a city quarter on the outskirts. And here comes the second big contrast. This quarter is linked to the city centre by an avenue; moreover, this avenue takes us out to the airport, too. However, the road separates two different worlds: the city and the countryside. Basically, on one side of the road, lustrous, many-storey, modern buildings tower with their uncountable number of windows and national flags guarding them; whereas, on the other side, you find average little houses with gardens and cows. I picture that politicians, leaders of banks, judges, etc. arrive in their black cars with dark windows to negotiate, argue and decide on important issues, and at the same time, the cattle graze calmly on the other side of the road, maybe letting a loud moo! out, or chasing each other a bit. Maybe these two worlds shouldn’t be separated as sharply as they normally are in other countries? Maybe it also shows that they can exist next to each other perfectly without impacting one’s or other’s success. By all means, I really like this concept.
This leads us to the next contrast I observed: merging the modern and the ancient. We can start from here, the Kirchberg quarter, where the modern office buildings are, and then in the city centre, we can find old, historical buildings, what’s more, the traces of an ancient city-fortress. One great example of this is the Bock casemates, which is also a UNESCO World Heritage site, and which provided shelter for the people during wars. This 23-km-long tunnel system was basically a small underground town; even horses were brought here, and it also had workshops, bakeries and kitchens. You can visit it even today, but keep a map at hand, because it’s easy to get lost. 🙂 It is a tunnel with more levels, one set of stairs here, one set of stairs there, a bend, a passage, some junctions, and you don’t know any more which end of the casemates you are. But don’t panic, it’s possible to find your way out, though I saw some of its corners more times than I intended. 🙂
Besides the casemates, you can also visit the jesuit Notre Dame cathedral from the 17th century, the gothic St. Michael’s Church consecrated in 987 and re-built after the bombing in 1684, or the Grand Ducal Palace, which all preserve the city’s history along with the ancient stone houses. If you’re interested in the history of the city, and got cold and rainy weather – as I did -, then I warmly recommend you to visit the Luxembourg City History Museum. It displays the city history in a detailed but still very picturesque and interesting manner. Visiting these sites, you definitely travel back in time.
Then you look around, and in the same place, you find shops displaying the most expensive and most fashionable brands. Moreover, cranes tower all over the city, which let us conclude that they keep constructing, refurbishing and modernising. One of the great constructions is the most professional skate park I’ve ever seen, and the other is a two-level bridge. Basically, they built another level under one of the viaducts, which is exclusively for pedestrians and cyclists. The city is an excellent example of preserving the old and the traditional, but they don’t slump into the past and the history, but rather keep innovating to create an enjoyable and livable place even for the youth.
I left the most apparent contrast to the end: there is a lower and an upper city. The lower part is the Grund, which reminds me a picturesque little village with its stone houses built into the cliffs, its stone bridges, its winding narrow streets. In its centre, the Neumünster Abbey stands, which is also a UNESCO site. Moreover, there are restaurants, bars for those who fancy going out. Cars are banned from this district, which makes it even more pleasant to walk along the river Alzette. However, if you once decide to come down to the Grund, you have to anticipate a rather hard work to climb up to the upper centre. I would like to remind you that I mentioned the presence of tall cranes for any kind of construction work and the viaducts; furthermore, they have even built a 45-metre-high elevator that makes the commute easier between the two parts of the city. However, it’s worth getting yourself walking up, as the view of the valley, the cobbled medieval streets and the unique buildings will take your wheezy breath away anyway. 😉
The above examples prove me that the opposites can perfectly co-exist and they complement each other. The main point is that none of the sides should be eliminated or sharply separated from each other, but we should rather let them flow into each other, make each other shine, and let them strengthen the whole with joint forces: village-like city, city-like village, history and modernity, preservation and innovation, linking the top and the bottom, this is the key to success.
