never pass a pisser, never trust a fart, never waste a stiffy.
So – for probably one of the last times this holibobs – we popped on the music, the lights, grabbed a drink, had a little snack & put the world to rights…
When we returned from Luxembourg to the campsite, we saw a fair few plastic chairs set out in rows next to the cafe as we bibbed past on the scooter, assuming the seats would be for the audience and that there might be a singer or a band later…
We were sitting outside The Van chilling and I was doing a bit of blogging when all of a sudden we heard this full-on brass band start up !!!
We wandered over to listen close-up and the band were the ones sitting on the plastic chairs !!! They were brilliant – have a listen…
This one’s quite special for me – I love Simon & Garfunkel anyway but at the tender age of 11 – in top juniors – I was in the school choir and we performed this at Scunthorpe’s Plowright Theatre, we won, there was a photo & piece in the local paper and (as I was Head Girl !!!) I held the trophy 🏆
… and the song was…
❤️ The Sound of Silence ❤️
P.S. Apologies that I turned the phone around so the visual’s a bit rubbish 😔
We got off the train feeling hot & sweaty 🥵 (and that’s another thing – the carriages were tiny – I could just about face forward with my knees against the front of the carriage but poor Dave most definitely had to sit diagonally), picked up some food and went to sit on the seats under the trees in a nearby square – to re-fuel & cool off…
Then we wandered back to Place De La Constitution (where the Golden Lady statue was). The reason why I liked it there is that it is filled with deck chairs, picnic benches & even comfy seats (made from pallets & futon cushions) – where you can just chill…
There is a ride with swing seats on chains in the middle & little kiosks to buy drinks, ice-creams, etc. And there even was – for the month of August – a library !!!
We bought a couple of coffees to wash down our chocolate brownies (which were included with the salads that we’d bought !!!) and took shade on the futons for a while before heading back…
It was REALLY hot 🥵 and we didn’t fancy a 3 hour walking tour again so we went for the easy option of a 40 minute audio-guide land-train tour…
But it was the worst tour that we’ve ever experienced 😔
The audio was some random Irish guy with an American child asking questions about the city – and to say that it just didn’t work – is an understatement…
As Dave said when he got off – he couldn’t remember one thing that had been discussed – other than that there had been a lot of fighting…
Plus the audio was out of sync in places – with the surroundings – so you’d look around for a particular bridge or monument and it just wasn’t there… At one point, we were instructed to collect all of our belongings and get off the train to “take photos of the view and to have a cup of coffee” and that we could catch the next land train in 30 minutes – but the train never even stopped !!!
Shoddy.
Anyway here’s a few (not brilliant pics) that I managed to snap on the way round…
And as Dave quite rightly said – there DID seem to be loads of fighting – and they were forever being occupied by the French, Spanish & Austrians (is what I remember).
The only other two things that I remember is that the Luxembourg was founded in 963AD.
And that there are 23km of underground tunnels (called “Casemates”) beneath Luxembourg which really should have helped them defend the city a bit better than they actually did, if you ask me !!!
… should have stayed in Molsheim and gone to visit Colmar again for a gondola ride !!!
Gëlle Fra is situated in Constitution Square which overlooks some phenomenal views of the city…
We woke quite late, I popped a few blog entries on then we got ready and bibbed off on the scooter for the 35 minute (non-motorway route) to Luxembourg city…
Dave just put “Luxembourg Centre” into Google Maps so we ended up in the newer financial section of town where he then took us into an underground parking lot 🤷♀️ where we then realised motorbikes and scooters weren’t allowed…
We couldn’t turn around & go back so he then had to drive AROUND the IN-barrier, drive to the exit and then drive AROUND the OUT-barrier 😳 (he knows how to keep me on my toes !!! 😂)
I suggested that he pull over and type in “Gëlle Fra” (Golden Lady) so we’d get where I wanted us to go and 6 minutes later we were parking up 😅
“Gëlle Fra” is a 21 metre tall obelisk with a Golden Lady statue on the top – which was erected in 1923 to honour all of the thousands of Luxembourgers who volunteered for service in the armed forces during both World Wars – and lost their lives…
The campsite has a restaurant and Dave suggested we eat there that evening so we wandered along and Dave had the Steak Hache with peppercorn sauce, fries & salad and I had – what ended up being a HUGE (hot) chicken & mushroom vol-au-vent – and it was absolutely DELICIOUS 😋
Washed down with a carafe of local wine & beer – what’s not to like ? !!!
The road that leads to both the campsite entrance and the Deer Park is the same – and we’d gone past these wooden creations a few times and truly thought (but didn’t know why) that they were ladies legs.
Then yesterday when we returned from town, I noticed the Deer Park sign and said “Oooohhhh they’re NOT ladies legs – they’re ANTLERS !!!”
But whoever designed them…
It’s a bit suspect – look… 😂😂😂
We returned from the Deer Park, had some lunch and bibbed off on the 5 minute scooter-ride into town to see what it was like.
Can I just say at this point that we could have had a guided tour of a blast furnace but Dave wasn’t up for it…
Anyway, the campsite we are in is located in a place called Esch-sur-Alzette which (I’ve just this second found out from Mr Google) is not actually a town but “the second largest city in Luxembourg and also one of the most multicultural cities in the country with over 120 different nationalities united on one spot”.
Anyway it had a pretty square with the standard Hotel De Ville (Town Hall) but more importantly that explains why it had absolutely loads of clothes shops including a C&A !!! (where I bought a lovely pair of earrings).
Think I might have to have a second visit before we leave…
On-site there was a free Deer Park to go and visit – with deer, goats, parrots, etc.; neither of us are heavily into zoos but we thought we’d have a little walk around…
We bought a bag of animal food but to be honest, it didn’t look that appetising, nearly all the visitors had one of these bags of food – and I think the animals (in the main) were full !!!
We got a couple of pics & vids feeding the goats then I gave the bag of food to a lady with LOTS of children…
