Monday, February 13, 2006

Luxembourg



Scotland Claims to be the Best Small country in the world:



Let's test their claim.....

After a late night out hopping round various bars and drinking various beers, I find myself mid-afternoon heading to Luxembourg in the companies new Citroen Xara:



I'm not much of a car person, but this car seems to bee an anti-tardis, it looks much bigger on the outside than it does on the inside. It is meant to be a reasonably large car - I know this because there is a smaller Citroen which I've not been in, but that was bought at the same time.

The dashboard of a Xara(Or maybe just this Xara) seems to have been designed by fisher price. It's all remedial and wipe clean. But it does have a CD player!!!!!

Having forgotten to burn CD's from my iTunes, we have to make do with my meagre Amsterdam CD collection... After boring my boss with Pearl Jam....



.... we move onto listening to some Camp Freddy radio via the iTrip:



The mindless caffeine driven Dave Navarro is wonderful for these long boring drives.

As always things get a bit more interesting the further south you go. It's my first time this far south in Limburg, where I see the largest Chemical plant I have ever seen... this gives way to Liege, where the hills start almost immediately after leaving the Netherlands...

By the time we are nearing Luxembourg, it is now heavy snow, and it feels like we are driving uphill constantly, which makes sense. Most of The netherlands is under 5m below sea level, and most of Luxembourg is above 400m....

We arrive late and have a drive around the round the city to see the place a little. The City is centred around a large gorge which I'm sure would be lovely for a walk in warmer weather:





By the time we get to the Hotel, I take a few photos of the gorge in the snow:





Everything here seems to be 70's in style. For some reason switzerland is also like that. It must be something with the multi language, landlocked neutrality of the place.

We have a nice meal in French style restaurant... I have onion soup....


.
.....followed by lamb and rosemary............,



...........washed down with a Leffe Blonde:



Not a bad meal.... very satisfying. Luxembourg seems to be a straight blending of German, Belgian and French cultures, so they manage to pick the best of all these worlds....

I head to bed Satisfied......

I don't get to see much more of Luxembourg the next day other than some photos I take in daylight from the Hotel grounds:









After the meeting it's a trip home via the airport. It's a long drive home, and it;s good to finally climb into bed...... 10 hours of driving in about 36 hours.

Those who recieved a postcard should realise that tthe postcards were bought at one service station and posted at another..... no mean feat given that Luxembourg is only about 30 miles long......

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