Anyway, I have been on a couple of travels recently, so I thought I'd keep you updated.
Luxembourg
Only last week, I went on quite a spontaneous trip to Luxembourg for the weekend with a friend who is also an English Assistant. Personally, I felt like I'd been in the same place for too long and needed to see somewhere new quite desperately. Why Luxembourg? No reason in particular other than it wan't too expensive to get to and neither of us had ever been before. We found a lovely hotel online with a pool and a sauna which, in all honesty, we were more excited about than anything...
Once we'd finished work on Friday, we met at the eurostar station and got our train to Brussels where we got our connecting train to Luxembourg. The journey was fairly long and largely uneventful except for a couple of middle aged men who got on about an hour into the journey and even though there were plenty of seats around us free, with no baggage whatsoever, decided to sit next to us on the four-seat section. It was a little too cosy for comfort. I'm not the biggest fan of having my personal space invaded, and particularly not when it's by two musty-smelling people who also stink of alcohol, sleeping with their mouths open. My friend and I shared awkward glances for the next two hours until they thankfully left.
Aside from that, there was an interesting taxi incident when we asked how much it would be to get to our hotel from the station and were suddenly approached by an angry stranger emphatically pointing a little way down the road and saying in broken English 'Taxi rank there. These overpriced!' We glanced at each other a little wide-eyed, not quite knowing what to do, but we decided walking away from the taxi and strange man was definitely the best idea. We got a taxi from the alleged rank and arrived safely at the hotel.
I think the best bit about this hotel was the warm (freshly baked) cookie that they welcome you with. It was heaven.
Not a bad room either!
We went straight into town in search of somewhere to eat and to explore for a bit. Luxembourg is quite an interesting city since it was a fortress and there's a high and low part to the town. In reality, there isn't an awful lot in Luxembourg, except for the generic art gallery and museum, so we just enjoyed the new surroundings and relaxed.
The next day, we got up just in time to go to breakfast where there was every sort of breakfast food you could want: English fry up, fresh waffles, breads and pastries, fruit, cold meats and so on. After watching some tv, we went to the pool and sauna for a bit, which was completely empty-- probably a good thing too since the bikini body is really only a once a year thing...
Our first mission, once dressed, was to find a good patisserie, for we had decided that there was to be no holding back this weekend. We walked into a posh place called 'Oberweis' where we were greeted by a slightly austere waitress who seemed to be annoyed that we'd come, quite frankly, but that didn't stop us ordering two cakes each.
I regret nothing.
It would be an understatement to say that we were feeling a little laden, so we decided to explore the lower part of town and to find Clausen which is allegedly where all the night life takes place, and walk off the food in the process.
Perhaps it was down to the awful weather, but there was not a soul to be seen anywhere. The taxi driver had been most insistent that we go to Clausen because we'd find lots of young people there (or just people in general, I suspect), but really, there was absolutely no one. It's a shame because it did look like it was a good place to be: there were lots of bars and restaurants and it all looked fairly new. We thought we might go back that evening to see, but the weather was awful and we didn't want to go all that way again for nothing. Instead, we bought what turned out to be a particularly awful bottle of white whine, and watched films in the hotel room.
Sunday. Oh, Sunday. Sundays on the continent are everyone's least favourite day of the week, because there is nothing to do. Except for the odd café/restaurant everywhere is shut. We had hoped that since Luxembourg is a capital city, that something would be happening, but no. In fact, spending the whole afternoon there was so inconceivable an idea that we got an earlier train back to Brussels where, surprisingly, people were about and places were open... including an ice-cream café. After that, I must say I was starting to regret the sugar overload, and had to make it up to my digestive system with a few green teas at the train station!
This post is getting a little long, so it looks like there'll be another post coming up shortly! (It's a good job you're sitting down, isn't it?)
Before I leave you, you'll be delighted to know that Luxembourg was not without examples of my incompetency at life. On Saturday morning, having been to the pool and sauna, I was in the shower. It was one of those ones that's just a shower head over a bath which doesn't have the best of grip. (You can see where this is going already, can't you?) I'm not entirely sure how it happened, to be honest. All I know is that one second I was washing my foot, the next I was flopped over the side of the bath with the shower head still in my hand, pointing outwards into the bathroom. It's a good job there's only one of me for the world to handle.
No comments:
Post a Comment