this is the last luxembourg post ( finally, some of you may utter ) and there's not much left anymore to talk about except one thing: this city surprised me with a very charming aura, because upon entering it in the morning it seemed like this mega monster ( many construction sites & a little chaotic traffic situation ). after all, it turned out to be a city that is obviously very liveable and walkable, even though i have to admit, it's maybe a little expensive ( especially in the center of the city where you can find luxury shops en masse ). i guess being a city with lots of bankers and european union workers brings a lot of spending power ;P
near st. michael's church you can find the oldest part of town, especially the houses surrounding the marché aux poissons ( fish market ). the grund quarter ( where neumünster abbey is located ), while part of modern luxembourg city, was once its own little village, so the old structures of it don't really count as the original inner core of the city.
mir wölle bleiwe wat mir sin - roughly translates into: we want to stay what we are. native luxembourgians are really proud of their heritage and their accomplishments. the luxembourgish language is closely related to german, but it's very distinctive & distinguishable. in germany i would put it together with the dialect of saarland or the dialects of the eifel region, but it's still worlds apart. it's an official language in luxembourg ( next to french and german ).
the old city quarter was just my cup of tea. you can never go wrong with tiny alleys and medieval structures if you explore a city with me.
ya, i loved that house with the little oriel.
in this particular quarter you could find several fish signs. it was once the main residential area for luxembourg's fishermen.
little passages led to dark backalleys and yards with wells.
narrowing it down like a pro. you have no idea how such tiny alleys delight my little heart.
found the cutest head statues! i don't know the official english name for them, it's called grinköpfe in germany ( grinning heads, basically ).
i loved photographing details of various houses,
luxembourg wouldn't be luxembourg if it didn't offer you contrasts. a modern passenger bridge between two old houses.
in front of the grand ducal's palace again. the palace is guarded by very stern looking soldiers and it feels as antiquated as the queen's guards in great britain! but it also is quite charming.
le chambre de députés, the chamber of deputies.
i spotted more art deco buildings!
and of course modern urban dwellings.
i refer to this building as the swan house. so typically art nouveau!
old kitchenaid!
i loved this building, the graffiti were really nice and i fell in love with the chinese sign on the left. stitch is a clothing store, and it looked actually really cool and like a place i would probably shop at as well. check out their website to have a closer look at the graffiti and the layout of the place.
sign love!
the shops in luxembourg had really dope shop windows, to say the least. it was a pleasure to find things like old motorcycles modelling with sunglasses.
fell in love with this little butcher shop!
the entryway to the chinese restaurant.
a little contemporary architecture thrown in.
funny fountain.
more falling in love with buildings. very charming brutalist buildings, i have to say.
lovely window structures.
ladurée is a very famous french confectionery which is well known for macarons. they say they are the best worldwide, i can't testify for that though, as the prices for 5 macarons were exorbitantly high. sorry, laduree! can't afford your deliciousness.
very luxurious interior. as you can see, there seems to be a high demand for their cakes, the counters were pretty empty. ( it was around closing time when we passed by their shop ).
more concrete exteriors.
i believe this was written above the entry of a night club.
night bar selfie!
we made our way back to the parking lot and passed by the royal hotel again ( and other interesting buildings ). the juxtaposition of these houses gets me everytime.
this looked like an abstract beehive to me,
i think i will refer to this style as the beehive style for future descriptions, haha.
saying goodbye to a very contrasting city. upon looking back i was reminded of frankfurt and that the overall structure is a lot like this city as well. i guess banking hubs are pretty much similar :D
this tree was inside a park next to our parking lot and i was strangely enamoured with it.
the very last picture i took in the car as we were exiting the city via the kirchberg district, buildings around here were really extraordinary and edgy.
after a very tiring ( but equally fascinating ) day in this city we made our way back to germany's saarland again! stay tuned.
Comments