Even if we had been invited, we couldn't have stayed until the Oct 19 wedding of the Grand Duke Guillaume (heir apparent to the Royal Duchy) to Countess Stephanie de Lannoy of Belgium. The groom is is the oldest child & next in line to be the Grand Duke. Pictures of the happy couple are in most shop windows, some draped in a Luxembourg flag. It's a big deal, & we'll just miss it! We did walk past the castle today, & compared to Buckingham Palace, it's very modest.
We saw these 2 huge wheels in the park this morning, & walked up to them for a closer look. A Mexican artist, Javier Marin, was commissioned to do several pieces which are placed around the city for 2 months. They represent the pain & suffering that comes with living, much of which he contends is self inflicted. I can't tell you what the materials are in the wheels, but they're kind of gruesome up close. The female piece is also larger than life, & she appears to be struggling.
Here's the one of the woman struggling which was in a different park from the wheels.
Staying with the subject of art, we discovered the Atelier Luxembourg, a studio work space for aspiring artists. They are given space & materials to make their art, & it's open & free to the public. We browsed around & saw some interesting works in progress. Here's one artist's pieces that appear to be near completion.
This is the sign on the front of the Atelier---so true:
We walked & climbed stairs leading to impressive ruins in the old city. They go back to medieval times, & appear to have encircled the old city.
From the edges of those walls, you can look down several hundreds of feet to gardens, homes, parks, a river, jogging paths, etc. It's just a huge gorge in an otherwise flat city---very odd & scenic. Of course, I was too nervous to get close to the railing, so these pictures are thanks to Dave.
Fashion, a topic I haven't touched on this trip----First of all, I've seen various shades of red hair (not natural) in every country. Here are 2 examples from today. There's absolutely no attempt at looking natural if you ask me, & some are more garish than these which are on 2 middle aged women.
I'm a big fan of pedicures; in fact, I need one right now, but prices in Europe are outrageous compared to Moraga. I saw one place that charged 53 euros for a pedicure & 27 euros for a manicure. That would be expensive enough in euros, but even more in dollars. The strangest thing I saw today was this sign advertising FISH PEDICURES! It was about 20 euros for 12 minutes. Has this made it to the US now & I just didn't know about it? Creepy......
The weather cooperated today, & we were able to take a dry city bus tour. What a difference the sunshine makes! By the way, we've gotten Senior discounts in both Brussels & here in Luxembourg, but we didn't notice any in Germany. We saved 2 euros each on both the Brussels & Luxembourg city bus tours.
Three languages are predominate here: French, German & Luxembourgish. You know how Germans say Morgan for morning? In Luxembourgish, the word is Moyen, just a little different---I learned this one example on the bus tour. People cannot get citizenship nor children graduate from high school without proficiency in Luxembourgish, so immigrants are at a real disadvantage. In fact, the new Duchess to be got expedited citizenship, & some people are protesting since she can't speak the language yet. The woman has a Masters degree in Russian Studies, so I'm sure she'll get right on that.
Tomorrow, we will head to Trier, Germany (the country's oldest city & one time capital of the western sector of the Roman Empire) & the Mosel River Valley for 3 nights before returning the Dana, Chris, Jessie & Karl's house. We've really missed them!
THOUGHT OF THE DAY: I guess I'll never get over my fear of edges, aka, steep drop offs...
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