I’re leaving Luxembourg right now, on the 11:24 train to Brussels, on the way to Haarlem (near Amsterdam).
Luxembourg was great, even though we only spent several hours there. We arrived around 14:00 yesterday and now we’re leaving! It’s a city I think I could spend a lot more time in. Not that it even compares to anything we’ve seen, but I’d say it’s a beautiful mix of Rome and Bern with a little German thrown in. There’s probably a bit of the Netherlands in the mix, but I can’t say that yet! The buildings and streets are more like Rome, but the cleanliness and organization and, of course, the people are more like a Swiss city.
We were set to stay with another couchsurfing host, Tristan. We arrived no problem and followed Tristan’s excellent directions. He was located just off the bus line that goes downtown and to the Luxembourg Gare train station, so it was a good spot. He shares a 4-story home with three flat-mates. We met everyone, but only really spent time with Tristan. There was one other fellow (I can’t remember his name) there who has apparently been couchsurfing with Tristan since October! Tristan is a very generous host, as we found, and this guy takes the cake! The couchsurfer did have some good information and we are in similar places with traveling. He’s totally over working 8 hours a day in an office. He was definitely talking me in to going somewhere warm and stop suffering in the European winter. He has a good point.
After we met Tristan and got some recommendations, we set off for downtown. It was raining. And cold. But, what are we going to do with few hours in Luxembourg? Certainly not sit inside and surf Tristan’s excellent wireless internet connection. It was tempting to do that, as it was the FIRST place we have stayed that had wireless.
One of the things we’ve learned that Germans and at least 1 out of 4 take their privacy a lot more seriously than most Americans. For the Germans, both Helena, Christina and others (even couchsurfer guy at Tristan’s) brought that point up. It was rare to find an open wifi spot, if we could find one at all. In Luxembourg, we found quite few hot spots, about 1 in 4 were protected with WEP. I’m not sure what I’m trying to say, really. There was also a news item about some legislation in the German government that was written regarding the ability to be able to shoot down airplanes that were suspected of terrorist activity. The legislation was taken to the German constitutional court and was rejected. This is something that was probably never even brought up in the states, and the president, I’m pretty sure has the “authority” to authorize such a thing. It’s like the death penalty for criminals - what if they are wrong and shoot down a plane that either wasn’t under a real threat or a plane that had could be reasoned with or the terrorists overtaken on board. I think we have a real problem in the US that I hope will come under control soon. Come on Democratic congress! I don’t have much hope for that.
Anyway. Enough about stupid politics. We strolled through the downtown area, stopped in a camera shop where I was tempted to buy a new lens. I miss having the flexibility of a zoom lens, and am about ready to replace the 28mm prime lens I have with me. James bought a tiny umbrella for the rain (his jacket lacks a hood - whoops!) and we made our way to our recommended lunch spot - Chiggeri. It was very good, I had a wonderful salad with goat cheese and toast. James had some kind of chicken thing with potatoes. He ate it so fast I didn’t get to try it. I definitely have a strong interest in food! It can make or break a trip, I think. We had a couple Hoegaarden beers and ended up spending about 35 Euros on lunch. Not bad, I guess.
More strolling after lunch, and we headed down into the valley. We passed a spot where high up above we could see smoke from a house fire and for the rest of the afternoon there were sirens from ambulances ringing all over the city. We didn’t know if the ambulances were from the fire or what. The sirens brought back memories of Rome as no matter what there were sirens going all the time in that city. The valley was deserted. We passed a hand-full of people during our walk. At one point, there’s even a mini-golf near the river. It was closed, but looked interesting. We passed under some of the huge bridges and ended our walk back downtown sipping hot chocolate.
Before I left downtown to head back to Tristan’s house, I made some phone calls. I got to talk to Lynn for 10 minutes or so and she told me how big Cam is getting and how she only has two weeks before she goes back to work. I had a dream last night about seeing Cameron again, but he was much bigger as if it were months down the road.
Back at the house, it was time for internet! I didn’t have a lot to do, just change the template on my site and hope that it works ok. I think it is up and running, but if anyone sees any problems, please contact me. I helped Tristan make some dinner. We had stuffed mushrooms and feta cheese stuff zucchini. Both were very good. After the first course, he cooked some rotini pasta and all we had on it was cream, a little lemon juice and shaved parmesan cheese. It was quite good and simple. With a full stomach, I was getting tired. It was almost 23:00 and we had been up for a while. We had nice accommodations and sleep was good.
I am going to change something with my travel baggage. I want to consolidate down to one bag. Carrying the big backpack and the computer backpack sucks. The computer bag is so dang heavy. The weight would be better on my back, I think. That will be nicer too, because keeping track of two bags can be a pain. I think one of those incase neoprene sleeves will do ok for the powerbook. I think I’ll ditch a couple items out of my pack too - I haven’t used the poncho, and don’t think I will. And, the insul-mat sleeping pad hasn’t seen the light of day. Unless I end up sleeping on the street somewhere (which I’d like to avoid), I don’t think I’ll need that either. Between the two I should have room for the laptop and cables. It is very nice to have the laptop along.
Now I’m about 1 hour into a 6 hour train ride - glad I have the ipod!