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......

A Night in

The Glasgow University Volleyball team are playing in Amsterdam this weekend, so there's a group if them that I know staying in my flat for the weekend. Madness and carnage is bound to ensue, as one of them is a long time friend who knows how to party like only two very good friends can.

The troops arrive about lunchtime and I meet up with them and put their bags in my office, then when I've finished work, they come back to pick them up. They have already been out enjoying Amsterdam, and are full of fun and spirit - just what you need as the Amsterdam Winter Depression sets in. It's going to be a good weekend.

We've decided that since we've not seen each other for a while, that we're going to have a night in tonight and catch up. The weekend's guest's include a girl from Luxembourg who studies in Glasgow, Russian twins, one of whom does my degree in Glasgow and one who studies in Edinburgh, and Mowgli, a mate of mine who has joined me in adventures over the years from working in Supermarkets together, to sharing a house as students. Now he's working in Prague for six months, so our adventures are starting to hit Europe.

It seems like everyone on the team(Both drinking and volleyball) lives in Scotland apart from the Scottish ones. I've decided that given that Mowgli and I are missing home, and that it's getting chilly, we should have a good hearty scottish meal. I've cooked a big pot of Scotch Broth and a huge pot of Mince and tatties. We get some beers in and start to eat, drink and be merry.

The Russians start with a snooze on the couch. Mowgli informs me that their out cold while I'm cooking. I jokingly open a bottle of vodka and blow across the top of it from 10 metres away. One of them wakes up scratching her nose. Her timing was perfect.

Mowgli and I are the DJ's as we catch up on various musical discoveries. Since our last meeting we have discovered that Trent Reznor may be the greatest musical talent of the 20th Century and that the Czech version of "Should I stay or should I go" is painfully bad. We are still at odds as to whether Shakademus and Pliers are the new messiahs.

The Russian twin who is studying in Glasgow is known as The Space Cadet. This is not without good reason. Mowgli asks her if she can point to Luxembourg on the European map on our wall. She doesn't get off to a very good start, but that could be because Mowgli told her it was bordered with Ukraine. I still don't think she would have found it though, because when Mowgli bets her she couldn't find France, she complains that she's not seen this version of the map before - it's going to be a good weekend.

We make our way through my vinyl collection:









Mowgli takes over via his 15" Powerbook, and we get cheese for about an hour. It keeps the party going.

Eventually The Kiwi returns home and joins the party at full force, despite having work the next day.

We head to bed about 2am. Those that study/studied in the electronics faculty sleep in my bed and the others sleep in The Kiwi's room.(He's headed off to visit a friend for the night.)

We fall asleep to Camp Freddy Radio ready for a weekend of adventures.