… a princess ran out of the ball at midnight power-walked into the Gare de l'Est before sunrise to get on a train to go through the snow and up through the hills. She tried terribly hard not to smart when said train stopped at the Champagne-Ardenne TGV station where she was supposed to have been for a wine tasting the day before (but even princesses have their moments).
She wasn’t wearing a ball gown and had traded glass slippers for sturdy black leather booties, but from the second she stepped off the train, she felt like she was in a fairytale all the same.
Why? Not a magic spell nor a meddling fairy godmother, just Luxembourg.
I was in Europe to meet up with a dear friend and had one whole day between my arrival day and hers. With a family trip to Paris on the calendar later in the year, it made little sense to stay in France. Belgium was my eventually destination, but I had been there before, so it was time to find a new adventure.
For once, I did some planning a bit ahead of time – train tickets purchased nearly 3 weeks prior to departure seem excessive to me. Luxembourg was the perfect stop over: 2 hours from Paris, then 3 more onwards to Brussels.
Beyond the train tickets, however, I had very little plan. All I really knew about the country was that I’d still be able to speak French (indeed, much more reassuring than having to attempt German or – worse – Dutch).
Luxembourg, on first impression, was (as you may have guessed) something out of a fairytale. It started with one of the best single pieces of viennoisserie I’ve ever eaten: a hazelnut (not nutella, just hazelnut) croissant that I got at the train station upon arrival.
The walk into town was cold and brisk, through an unremarkable stretch of modern buildings, over a river and up to the adorable Ville Haute.
Churches and castles (or at least battlements). Pristine art galleries. Cozy restaurants. It was the perfect place for a day trip.
I explored for a bit before settling down for lunch at Am tiirmschen, which had the advantages of being tucked in away in a restored medieval building and hosting a full menu of Luxembourgish specialties.
After a bit of consideration, I settled on kniddelen, which are somewhere between gnocchi and dumplings (in the restaurant’s words: “un peu comme des gnocchis, mais avec farine de blé, œufs et lait – a little like gnocchi, but with wheat flour, eggs, and milk”). Roquefort sauce and walnuts, exactly the type of thing you should be eating to prepare for more frigid weather explorations.
After lunch, I made my way over to the Casemates du Bock - fortifications turned World War II bomb shelters turned modern tourist attraction.
After a long day of walking, I finally found some rays of sunshine over across in the river in the Grund neighborhood.
Was it ever worth the wait.
