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 Tinnemans 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 buses 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, 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.

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 is 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 wasn'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 nice views.

Top left: front entrance to the Cathedral Notre-Dame de Luxembourg.
Construction 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 one of the bloodiest battles 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 created just outside of Luxembourg City, and this was later permanently 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 shelters 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 of 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.

Controlled Chaos

We left Toul just after 8 a.m. on Tuesday, August 19. We'd seen some indication of highway construction zones along our route, but happily, we were only briefly slowed a couple of times. The roads were in excellent condition and traffic was generally light except for the noticeable increase in trucks when we entered the Netherlands. Our biggest issue of the day was trying to figure out how Belgium's motorway rest areas were configured. Many were simply picnic areas with no other services, but once we found an online guide we were able to locate stops with more extensive services.

We were with our friends Carla and Ebe at their home in Heerhugowaart (about a 30–45-minute drive north of Amsterdam) by mid-afternoon. A restful afternoon and evening of good conversation, a delicious dinner, and an after-dinner stroll for ice cream (and an ATM stop!) prepared us for the next day's encounter with SAIL 2025 Amsterdam.

The first SAIL Amsterdam was held in 1975 to celebrate Amsterdam's 700th birthday. It was so successful that it was decided to hold the event every five years. The SAIL events bring together large sailing ships and a vast fleet of smaller historic boats. This year's SAIL helped celebrate Amsterdam's 750th birthday, 50 years of SAIL and, due to postponement of the 2020 event due to COVID, it was the 10th anniversary edition of SAIL. 

SAIL Amsterdam 2025 was a 5-day event with a packed program of events centered around the port in Amsterdam. Some of the events were free and some, such as concerts, required the purchase of tickets. Not being so enamored of crowds, we were primarily interested in seeing the opening event of the festival, the traditional "Sail In" parade of the tall ships making their way from IJmuiden on the coast to the port of Amsterdam via the North Sea Canal. 

Ebe had no interest in joining the crowd of spectators for the Sail In, having seen it multiple times over the years, so Carla was our tour guide for the day. We took the train to the canal side town of Beverwijk and after a brisk 2+ mile walk we set up camp stools near the water with hundreds of our closest friends, and settled in.

When the sun was out it was more than comfortable; when it 
wasn't, the breeze was a bit cool.

This being the Netherlands, many of the spectators arrived
by bicycle. The organizers had also set up space in parking
lots for the bikes. How does one find their bike afterward
when there's no remote control to activate lights or sound?

We arrived somewhat after 9 a.m., and our first hour was spent watching a non-stop stream of boats making their way down the canal from the direction of Amsterdam toward IJmuiden. These were private boats of all shapes, sizes, and vintages that had to comply with a strict set of guidelines in order to participate in the parade. Water police and water rescue boats helped keep things organized.

Upper: looking "right" in the direction of IJmuiden (town not visible)
Lower: looking "left" in the direction of Amsterdam (several km
away and also not visible)

At 10 a.m. the first tall ships were scheduled to go through the sea lock at IJmuiden and we started seeing them from our position at about 10:45. The largest tall ships under sail had at least one tow boat tethered aft as a braking mechanism; a few of the ships not under sail were being towed by a 2nd boat tethered to the bow. We had thought that the tall ships would be moving through the canal on a central channel that had been cleared for them. In our wildest dreams we did not envision that the smaller boats we'd seen moving "down" the canal earlier would essentially be swarming the tall ships, filling in the available water between and around those ships. The SAIL website estimated that 10,000+ boats would be participating, and as we were seeing just a small part of the parade route, we wouldn't be at all surprised by that estimate. It looked completely chaotic, and at times there were so many boats that it became hard to distinguish the tall ships from the other largish historic boats that were on the water. Yet, we saw no collisions, so it must have been a "controlled chaos." 

The swarm

A tall ship approaches under sail. It's still amazing that we saw no collisions.

A military ship departed the Beverwijk harbor and joined the parade.

Two of the dozens of tall ships.

Contributing to the party atmosphere were balloons and confetti, musicians in period dress on 
a classic boat, Romans trying to fix their "horse", and car marketing done in an unusual way.

We felt a bit concerned for the ducks and the lone swan caught up in the
madness, but they, too, managed to avoid collisions.

After about an hour-and-a-half of parade, all of the tall ships seemed to have passed by, so we started back to the train station for our return to Heerhugowaart. The part of our walking route that was shared with bicycles was the most dangerous part of our day. Fortunately, like the boaters and the birds, we had a "crash free" return to Carla and Ebe's house, where we spent the remainder of the afternoon just relaxing before taking them out for a "thanks for hosting us" dinner that evening.

We left Heerhugowaard on Thursday morning, August 21. We would be staying that evening at a hotel just to the south of Schiphol Airport and to the east of the city of Haarlem. We wanted to see our Haarlem friends Joost and Yolanda before we headed out of the Netherlands, and because it was a workday for them, dinner in Haarlem seemed to be the best option. As we couldn't check into the hotel until at least 2 p.m., we decided to spend the early part of the day in a heritage park called Zaanse Schans, easily reachable on our drive between Heerhugowaard and Schiphol.

Zaanse Schans is in a neighborhood of Zaandam. (We'd visited Zaandam on a day trip by train in 2021, but Zaanse Schans was just too far from the center of Zaandam for us to have comfortably paid it a visit at that time.) The outdoor museum contains windmills and traditional houses designed to display what life was like in the 18th and 19th centuries in the Zaan district, the oldest industrial area in western Europe. In the 17th century the Zaan district became a center of shipbuilding. In its industrial heyday, over 600 active windmills were at work in the district. The current park contains 8 full-size windmills, most brought in from other parts of the district in order to preserve them, with the oldest dating to 1609. While there are a few residents in the neighborhood, most of the houses are given over to craft workshops, souvenir shops, and small cafes. 

We hadn't read much about Zaanse Schans before visiting, thereby failing to realize that it is a well-known tourist attraction that sees nearly 3 million visitors per year. It probably wasn't even close to being its busiest time of the year, but the number of people there was enough to cause us to shorten our stay to about an hour. Attractive, but commercialized. We were glad we came, but ultimately, prefer to see our windmills "in the wild."

An overview of windmill row from one perspective.

The windmills as seen from the water.

 

The idea for Zaanse Schans originated in 1947. The first mill arrived on
site in 1955 and the first house came a few years later. The museum was
opened by Queen Juliana in 1972.

The large number of people walking by the windmills is directly
proportional to the large number of tourist busses in the parking lot.

After retrieving our car, we drove to the center of Zaandam, parked, and found a cafe for lunch. For whatever reason, Zaandam seemed quieter this time than it was in 2021. As we were anxious to avoid driving in rush hour traffic, we left Zaandam soon after lunch and enjoyed a quiet afternoon in the hotel before driving to Haarlem for our dinner with Joost and Yolanda.

This is just a portion of a rather macabre art installation in a grassy area next to the hotel.
No one at the hotel could explain the meaning behind the "garden of heads". Perhaps they are
simply an object lesson to customers of what might happen to those who leave without paying.

It's always wonderful to see Joost and Yolanda, and they were
kind enough to treat us to a wonderful dinner at Restaurant
Parck near their home in Haarlem. We were sorry not to see their
daughters Suze and Rosa, but they are active teenagers and had
other things going on that evening.

Have Car, Will Travel

We picked up a rental car at the train station in Nancy on Monday, August 18. Trains are our preferred mode of travel while in Europe, but they weren't going to work well for our trip to the Netherlands. It's lovely to let someone else "do the driving" while being able to read, nap, or just watch the scenery go by, but four or five changes of train--taking over 8 hours and costing in the neighborhood of $800 (round trip) for the two of us--was hard to justify when compared to driving a rental car for six-and-a-half hours at a third of the cost (including the fuel).

There is another advantage to having access to a car, and that is the ability to easily visit villages and interesting sites that don't have convenient public transportation options. There was at least one stop we knew we wanted to make when we had the car, and that was the village of Domrémy-la-Pucelle, the birthplace of Joan of Arc. It first came to our attention when we made a day trip by train in mid-July to the town of Neufchâteau and we were investigating other possible sites of interest in the area. Domrémy was only about 10 kilometers from Neufchâteau, but as we had limited time before we had to return to Toul by train, and no bicycles or other means of covering the 10 km, the distance may as well have been 100 km. But now, we had the possibility to visit the village, so after we collected the car in Nancy we headed southwest for the approximate 1-hour drive.

With a bit of serendipity, we stumbled upon a bargain of a lunch at La Marmite, a roadside brasserie in the village of Greux. After lunch, another 5 minutes of driving brought us to Domrémy-la-Pucelle, perhaps the mother of all "Joan of Arc was here" sites in France. Originally, simply named Domrémy, the "la Pucelle" was added to the village name in the late 1500's in recognition of Joan's nickname, "la Pucelle d'Orleans" (the Maid of Orleans). The village, which was never large and now has a population of only about 100, is located on the border between Lorraine and Champagne, and as a result saw much warfare over the centuries.

Joan was born in Domrémy in 1412, started hearing "voices" in the garden of her home in 1425, left Domrémy and offered her services to the future King Charles VII in 1428, led the army that relieved the siege of the city of Orleans in May 1429, and was present in Reims at the coronation of Charles VII. After that, things went downhill for Joan: she failed to lift the Siege of Paris in September 1429 and unsuccessfully attempted to lay siege to the fortified town of La Charite-sur-Loire; was captured by the Burgundians in Compiegne in 1430 and turned over to the English; and was ultimately put on trial for heresy in Rouen in 1431, found guilty, and burned at the stake. An "oops, we made a mistake" rehabilitation trial in 1456 declared that the original trial was corrupt, and cleared Joan of the charges of heresy. Her reputation within France continued to grow, and particularly after the French Revolution she was recognized as a symbol of French strength and endurance. Joan was canonized by the Catholic Church in 1920, and is today one of the patron saints of France.

Joan of Arc's birthplace and childhood home. The structure of the house has undergone
some changes since it was originally built in the Middle Ages. The lintel over the door
was installed by a descendent of Joan's in 1481.

The largest of the four rooms on the ground floor of the house,
this was her parents' bedroom and, therefore, most likely to
have been the room in which she was born. The slab floor 
dates to the 19th century.

Another of the rooms on the ground floor, designated as the
"brother's bedroom." In Joan's time, the upper story is thought to have
housed a granary, and in the 19th century was briefly a museum.

An interpretive center adjacent to the home delves into
Joan's early life, the battles she participated in, and her
evolution into "legend." 

Even saintly legends can't avoid being monetized and lending their names to modern-day products:

Restaurants and beers

Cheese

The parish church of Saint-Remy, next door to the family home,
and the site of Joan's baptism in 1412.

The baptismal font said to have been in use at the time 
of Joan's baptism. Behind it is a tombstone of the
descendants of one of Joan's godmothers.

A short distance to the south of Domrémy is a small hill on which sits a large pilgrimage church built between 1881 and 1926 that bears the name Basilica of Saint Joan of Arc. The hill was previously occupied by a chapel that had marked the site where Joan is supposed to have received some of her revelations. 

The Basilica of Saint Joan of Arc.

The interior had some amazing artwork.

Mosaics were here, there, and everywhere.

The walls held a series of paintings depicting the significant
events in Joan's life.

The mosaic in the ceiling above the altar.

Joan hears the voices of Saints Michael, Catherine,
and Margaret.

It was an interesting "detour" in the rental car, and probably would have sufficed as "field trip of the day," but a quick check of the surrounding area the day before had uncovered another promising stop that was only a 20-minute drive to the southwest of Domrémy. The modern-day village of Grand, population of about 400, was previously the site of the large Roman city of Andesina, with a population of approximately 20,000. Archeologists first discovered the Roman vestiges in the 18th century, but much of the major clearing of ancient sites didn't start in earnest until the 1960's. One mystery is why a large city would be built in an area without rivers, and instead, was situated on a limestone plateau whose springs required the construction of underground aqueducts and hundreds of wells to bring the water to the surface. It is thought that Grand/Andesina was a significant religious site dedicated to the worship of Apollo Grannus, although a sanctuary referenced in various texts has yet to be located.

The largest and most impressive of the Roman structures is an amphitheater, whose initial construction dates back to the 1st century AD. Its central aisle of 148 meters puts it among the largest buildings of its type in the Roman empire. Seating capacity was estimated to be 16,000-18,000. By the mid-4th century, the amphitheater had been abandoned and was falling into ruins. 

A panoramic view of the amphitheater. The wooden stands were added in the 1990's as
part of an effort to protect the limestone arches and other exposed structures from deterioration.
The remains to the east side were left in their original state, except that stonework on the 
eastern facade was partially buried behind a retaining wall to preserve it.

An aerial photograph of the site in the 1980's, before the
protective stands were added.

The arches and other exposed parts of the structure under the
protective stands.

View from the stands toward the rooms at the east end of the arena
that may have been used for gladiator warm-up, animals, etc.

The view of the arena from the top tier of seating. The design of the amphitheater, open on
one side, was somewhat unusual and meant that the acoustics could have allowed for theatrical
type performances, not just gladiatorial combat.

The eastern walkway to the arena.

The other principal Roman attraction in the village was a large mosaic that was unearthed in 1883. At 232-meters-squared, the mosaic is one of the largest preserved Roman mosaics in France and paved the floor of a large building that had an apse. The building may have been a basilica, a place of judicial administration, but the central design that features a theater scene from a Greek or Latin comedy has led to speculation that it may have been a different kind of structure.

The building which houses the mosaic and a small adjoining
museum of Roman objects discovered during excavations in Grand.

View toward the apse. Of the central design, only 2 figures
have survived.

A side view.

From a corner.

Most of the objects displayed were small in scale. Some of the
more important and larger finds are in museums elsewhere
in France.

Blocks from the ancient foundations of the building.

We didn't have enough time to partake of the complete "Discovery Tour" in Grand, as it was getting to be late afternoon and it would take us about an hour to drive back to Toul. And, of course, there was packing to be done and the anticipation of a long drive the next day. So many places, so little time . . .