Days 5 & 6 – Luxembourg – Making Memories

Day 5

Wednesday, Paris to Luxembourg
And then there was traffic.

Our morning began with an 8:30 departure from the hotel in Paris, headed through insane rush hour traffic to try to get from the WNW side of the city to the east side to travel on the A4 to Luxembourg.

Now here’s the deal. Google Maps would tell you the journey is about 245 miles long and should take about 3½ hours, not including a ½ hour rest/lunch stop. But Google evidently doesn’t know about rush hour in Paris. Quelle nightmare! The time passed relatively quickly for me, as I had knitting and audiobooks and games on my iPhone, and all those were accompanied by a few minutes of napping here and there. It was exciting to me to be riding on roads I had traveled in May through the Champagne region. By the time we arrived at the Novotel near Philharmonie Luxembourg, almost five hours had passed. We grabbed our bags, our room keys, dropped things in our rooms, and set out to explore. We had 24 hours until our next commitment.

Our group of seven rode the city bus into the center of town, where we walked down shopping streets with our mouths gaping. One word would describe Luxembourg: Money. We wandered through the historical city and down Rue Sigefroi to stand on the viaduc to view the casemates and Neumünster Abbey.

[Excellent blog post explaining casemates in Luxembourg.]
[More from visitluxembourg.com]
[If you want to learn more and maybe explore the area yourself.]

As the sun faded, we headed back into the old town to find a restaurant and settled on Restaurant-Pizzeria Bacchus. The wait staff was fun and funny, and they started our evening off with a complimentary champagne toast. (Look at the contrast between old and new in the picture to the left. This is an astounding city.)

After dinner, we strolled back through the shopping district and took the bus back to the hotel.

Day 6

Friday, with morning and early afternoon free

The day dawned cold with threatening rain. We ate breakfast downstairs, then met up with our group of seven to take a walking tour one of our colleagues had arranged. From the lovely and gracious guide Lou (“it’s short for Louise”), we learned an overwhelming number of facts and saw beautiful old buildings and areas of the city, including Place d’Armes, Constitution Square, Government District, Corniche, Monument of the Millenium, Old Town, Palace of the Grand Dukes (outside), and Place Guillaume II.

After our walk and overloaded with historical facts (okay, so I’m speaking for myself!), feeling tired and hungry, we chose a café in the center of the shopping area. Restaurant La Boucherie was just what we wanted—typical local food, hot tea, and another friendly waiter. (Watch out if you click the link to explore the restaurant – the site moos!) After another half hour of walking around and finding a few mementos to take home with us, we found the right bus and went back to the hotel to rest before our evening performance.

And there it was, the culmination of all the hard work and miles of travel. We donned our performance togs and walked across the highway to Philharmonie Luxembourg. What a beautiful hall; what a beautiful venue in which to sing! Even the hall which was used as a holding room for the chorus (pictured at right) was breathtaking! We warmed up, we rehearsed, we sang, we received heartwarming applause. After a quick trip back across the highway to change clothes into something more appropriately festive, we came back for a champagne reception hosted for us by The Cleveland Orchestra. Maestro Welser-Möst was effusive in his praise for our work and our assistance on this tour.

After several sips of wine and many shutter snaps, we headed back to the hotel to finish packing and set our alarms for 4:00 a.m. to board the busses for Brussels.