Back on a plane, to knock off a couple of countries together. I changed into my night clothes the moment I got to my seat. The plan is to fall asleep as soon as we take off. Skip dinner and breakfast (have to admit Air France does have some good wine, which I will be sad to miss) and be totally fresh when I land on the other side of the pond.

That is the plan. Now, if the plane decides to have a maintenance problem and we are offloaded, I will be in big trouble. PJs and a nightshirt do not mix well with the airport boarding area or the SkyClub lounges!

Woke up blithe as a lark, as P. B. Shelley would have fancied. The no-food, no-drink, sleep-through-the-night-on-the-plane strategy seems to have worked well.

I pulled up the shade and there stood the Eiffel Tower, tall above the clouds, while Paris below was still not out of its slumber.

Sharmila has done the same on her trip from London to Paris with Nikita. For me, this would be the first high-speed train in Europe. And the fourth time crossing a country border by train – Denmark to Sweden, Germany to Austria, Austria to Hungary, Monaco to France, and now France to Luxembourg.

We will hit 200mph for most of the high-speed rail section between Paris and Metz.

View from the pantry car in the train.

We reached Luxembourg station, and the Marriott was less than a 5-minute walk! After freshening up and getting pointers from the hotel staff, we hit the road to check out the local sights on foot.

Seems like that is a regular road going thru it. I think those are medians on the road that one can see…

Loved it when the trains would pass on it.

Also called “the most beautiful balcony of Europe”. You can see La Passerelle bridge in the background. Below is the neighborhood of Grund.

I didn’t realize at all that Luxembourg City sits on a big rock. With steep cliffs. At the bottom of the cliff is the Alzette River, and then the township of Grund in the valley. The views from the cliff are beautiful, and there are innumerable footpaths going up and down the cliffs!

This might explain why folks in Luxembourg seem to be so fit!!

I believe this is called Rocher du Bock. Those openings into the sheer face are actually tunnels inside. We will go inside tomorrow.

This is a must have feature of every European city.

Wrapping up our first day in Luxembourg. Discovered something new – non-alcoholic Orange Spritz. Tasted pretty much like the Aperol Spritz.

Took the tram and got off at Theater. All public transport is free in Luxembourg. Walked for some distance to reach the Panoramic Elevator. Except that we found out it was closed for maintenance. This is a view from the top.

That would be the bridge behind her 🙂

Also grabbing lunch before exploring the tunnels

Surprising fact about Luxembourg – instead of king and queen as monarchy, they have Duke and Duchess!

GPS took us in a round about way and made us climb down the hill and back up again!

The tunnels up there have been built into the side face of the cliffs

This is at Casemates du Boch

This connects the Casemates du Boch to the city center.

Luxembourg often was called the Gibraltar of the North due to the labyrinthine tunnels that were use for defense.