Small, But Mighty

(Originally intended for publication on August 30, 2025)

Leaving the Netherlands on Friday, August 22, almost made our heads spin, so short was the time spent in the country. Still, our overall "vacation" away from CARIB was only six days, and we wanted to get to Luxembourg City in order to have at least 2 full days to explore a place we'd not been before. The drive was pretty easy, and we timed it so that we were able to stop for lunch in the town of Maasbracht, where we'd stayed with CARIB in 2021-22 for some work in the Tinnemann's shipyard. We noticed a few changes, but most things seemed the same.

Waiting for our food at what used to be our favorite soup
and sandwich cafe. Although under new ownership, both
were still good.

Luxembourg, or to use the more formal term, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is not often on the travel radar of tourists in Europe, at least as compared to its larger and more well-known neighbors Germany, Belgium, and France. We'd first started thinking about visiting Luxembourg several years ago, when some fellow musicians at a chamber music festival I was participating in mentioned how much they loved Luxembourg City and that they had visited it several times. Given that our cruising grounds this year are very close to Luxembourg--Toul is only 75 miles south--it only made sense to us to make sure that our driving route to (or from) SAIL Amsterdam 2025 included Luxembourg City.

Luxembourg is a constitutional monarchy with a Grand Duke as its Head of State, making it the world's only Grand Duchy still existing as a sovereign state. The founding date of the country is considered to be 963 AD, when Sigefroid (Siegfried), Count of Ardennes, worked a deal with the Abbey of Saint-Maximin in Trier (a city in present-day Germany) to take possession of a rocky promontory that held the ruins of an ancient castle from the Roman era and overlooked the Alzette River. Luxembourg's small size and strategic centralized location made it fair game over the centuries for all kinds of political intrigue, and it found itself at various times under the rule of Spain, the Hapsburgs of Austria, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Prussia/Germany. It wasn't until 1890 that Luxembourg truly became an independent nation. A probable result of all this changing of allegiances is that Luxembourg is left with 3 official languages: Luxembourgish is THE official language, but French and German are both official administrative languages.

Today's Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is one of the smallest countries in Europe, with a total population of under 700,000; the population of the capitol, Luxembourg City, is less than 150,000. Its land area is smaller than the U.S. state of Rhode Island, nevertheless, Luxembourg was at one time the 7th largest steel producer in the world. These days, the world of finance has replaced heavy industry. Luxembourg was a founding member of the EU, a founding member of NATO, and as the location for several EU institutions--including the Court of Justice of the European Union--Luxembourg City is considered to be one of the three capitols of the European Union (along with Brussels, Belgium and Strasbourg, France).

The hotel we found for our stay was within easy walking distance of the city center and its UNESCO listed sites. Had we stayed further out it still would have been a breeze getting around, as the public busses and trams were free.

Parking in the hotel was an unusual event. To get to a space on 
level -3 we had drive the car into this elevator for the ride down.
An interesting experience.

Tired from driving, we stayed around the hotel on Friday evening, but had busy days on Saturday and Sunday. It was too grey and cool on Saturday to feel much like August, but it didn't keep us from enjoying the city. The first part of the day was spent getting a quick overview of the city, and the afternoon saw us delving more specifically into a walking tour of the old town and the fortifications. 

The view from Place de la Constitution over the Petrusse Valley.
 

View from the Saint-Esprit Plateau of the upper town (Ville Haute)
and the lower town (Grund district).

The view from the Chemin de la Corniche, sometimes referred to as
"the most beautiful balcony of Europe." Openings in the Bock Casements
can be seen in the rock wall at upper left. At right, buildings of the
former Neumunster Abbey. The waterway is the Alzette River.

Upper: the Grand Ducal Palace. The part of the building in the 
righthand portion of the photo is that of the Chamber of Deputies, Luxembourg's
parliament. Lower: Place Guillaume II. The statue is that of former
Grand Duke William II ("Guillaume" in French). 

Shopping, shopping, shopping in the pedestrian zone. Above, a craft
and miscellaneous market in one of the city's main squares, the 
Place d'Armes. Below, one of several "regular" shopping streets. Lots
of cafes and restaurants, too. We found the restaurants to be on the 
expensive side, but that's probably just a function of their location
in a city within a country with a high per capita income.

In the Pfaffenthal district, the home of craftsmen and artisans in the Middle Ages. At left, the 
"panoramic elevator" makes the 60-meter height between the lower town and the upper town 
easy to manage. At right, a part of Pfaffenthal can be seen from the elevator cab, but the formerly
clear floor shows scuffing from years of contact with shoes.

Street-level Pfaffenthal and one of its two 17th C.
Vauban Towers and gate.

A view toward the Ville Haute (to the left), the casemate fortifications in the limestone plateau
(left-center) and the modern European district (high rises upper right) as taken from the old
fortifications on the Grund side of the Alzette River.

Upper: a playground tucked next to an old defensive bridge called
 "Maierchen", and a railway viaduct.
Lower: part of the city's defensive ring. The 15th century Dinselpuert is
at the far left. The drawbridge and moat are long gone.

Walking through the Grund district, the presence
 of the fortifications and city on the limestone  
 promontory above Grund are obvious.
At right, a building shows flood levels from
1756 (the upper mark) and 1806 (lower).
 

    

I'm sure that, even if my maiden name weren't Clausen, this "lower" 
neighborhood of Luxembourg would have been my favorite. Clausen is
one of the oldest neighborhoods in Luxembourg City, with a history
that goes back to the breweries of the 12th C. As a center for restaurants
and nightlife, the sleepy appearance of midday gives way to livelier
evenings. The "Rives de Clausen" is the entertainment quarter built
on the old Mousel Brewery sites. I was told that the meaning of Clausen
 the district has nothing to do with Danish names (unlike Clausen
 in my family context).

The city occasionally installed these striped squares with
circular cut outs to frame--I guess--nice views.

Top left: front entrance to the Cathedral Notre-Dame de Luxembourg.
Contstruction started in 1613.
Top right: cathedral interior.
Bottom: the crypt contains the remains of the Grand Dukes and Grand
Duchesses of Luxembourg.

Upper: remains of fortifications in City Park Edouard Andre made into an
 art installation with white concentric curves.
Lower: the kids in Luxembourg have some amazing playground equipment!

A building tunnel in the old fish market area led through
 a Renaissance courtyard to the street fronting the ducal
 palace. The shame of it was that the courtyard was neglected
 and smelled as though people had been living there.

We took a break from ancient history on Sunday morning to visit a site of more modern vintage. Luxembourg was very close to the fighting in WWII's "Battle of the Bulge", the last major German offensive on the western front. The attempt in the winter of 1944/45 to overwhelm and split the Allied forces ultimately failed, but it ended up being the bloodiest battle for U.S. forces during WWII. For much of the Battle of the Bulge, Luxembourg was the headquarters of General George Patton from which he directed the operations of the 3rd Army. Post-war, a temporary military burial site was established just outside of Luxembourg City, and this was later established as the Luxembourg American Cemetery. It was to the cemetery that we drove on a beautiful, sunny August 24.

This is one of 26 American military cemeteries around the world
managed by the American Battle Monuments Commission.

Left: Lon about to enter the non-denominational Memorial Chapel.
Right: the ceiling mosaic, the altar. The stained-glass window
contains insignia of the five major U.S. commands that operated
in the region.

There are 5,076 service members buried in the cemetery. This includes 2 Medal of Honor
winners; one woman, an Army nurse; and 22 sets of brothers. The cemetery also contains a
"Wall of the Missing" with nearly 400 names.

General George S. Patton is buried in the cemetery. On December 9, 1945, Patton was severely
injured in a car crash in Germany and died 12 days later. He wished to be buried with his 
soldiers at the Luxembourg American Cemetery. Originally buried in the middle of a plot among
his troops, the number of visitors to his grave resulted in damage to the cemetery grounds, so
his grave was ultimately moved to the front of the grave plots.

The cemetery is just across a road from Luxembourg's airport. The
airport is a big cargo hub, which is probably why we saw so many
747s landing.

Not far from the American cemetery was the Sandweiler German War Cemetery. It contains the graves of nearly 11,000 German servicemen from the Battle of the Bulge. Over half had been buried by the American war graves service during the war, and over 5,000 were gathered from 150 different cemeteries in Luxembourg and brought to Sandweiler. 

The WWII cemeteries look just like the German WWI cemeteries. Each stone marked a 
grave of 4 persons, most with names, but some listed as unknown. Several of the markers had a
candle, or, as in the photo to the right, a wreath, which seemed to have been done to call attention
to the very youngest of the soldiers. Erwin Thalau was only 16 years old.

The large cross marked the location of a communal grave. Initially, 
most of the bodies had not been identified, but ultimately enough
research was done to be able to identify and list (on tablets
encircling the cross) the names of over 4,000 of the soldiers.

Our tourist activity of the afternoon was to go underground at the Bock Casemates, another UNESCO world heritage site. The casemates are an extensive underground military defense system. The first casemates were built by the Spanish in 1644, enlarged by Vauban 40 years later, and again by the Austrians in the 18th century. Ultimately, the site contained 23 kilometers of galleries and tunnels extending over several stories to a depth of 40 meters. During the World Wars of the 20th century they had the capacity to serve as a shelter for up to 35,000 people. What is open to the public is just a small part of the system that existed. The Petrusse valley on the opposite side of town also has a casemate system.

At the antechamber to the Casemates is the archeological
 crypt, which shows the vestiges of the first count's castle,
erected in the 10th C. and uncovered in 1993.

There was a variety of sizes and shapes of rooms and passageways.

And, of course, there were stairs . . . and more stairs.

There were lots of places to get an overview of the city--which
was obviously one of the purposes of building the casemates.

Sticking your head out one of the wall openings gained you a pretty 
impressive view along the wall, and of the lower and upper towns. The
vineyard below means wine is in someone's future.

We had dinner out and a final stroll through town. We got on the road by 8 a.m. on Monday, August 25, and had the car returned to Nancy by half past 9. Even with a bit of a wait for a train, we were still back at the Toul rail station by 11. I've mostly been concentrating on writing but have managed to do a few things to prepare for our upcoming Africa trip. 

Before we left for the Netherlands, we gave the go-ahead for a complete bow thruster unit to be ordered. The latest word as of yesterday is that there is a 15-day delay in shipping it. At this point it hardly matters, as TSMI's plan is to have the work completed sometime over the winter, and not before we head back to Florida at the end of September. We always worry a little about the "out of sight, out of mind" effect when it comes to contractors and work, but it should only be a one or two day project to get the new unit installed, so I guess we just have to have a little faith about something that is mostly out of our control.