hen trying to visit all 338 countries and territories, sometimes you don’t have the luxury of visiting them by ranking… Meaning, maybe my top 5 include Moscow, New York City, Tokyo, Bali, and Brazil. Traveling in order of ranking would be inordinately expensive, not to mention the visa issues you’d face.

Instead, you pick general regions (the northern part of Europe, or the western part) and link as many countries together as you can in a single trip.

This lets you experience more countries on a single visa and incur far less transportation expense. Thus you sometimes end up in places that you’re not interested in. Or at least would have been further down on your ranking list. San Francisco or Luxembourg? San Francisco!

Having said that, even the places that you weren’t that interested in, always have something new to teach you, or at least some eye candy – if you can find it.

The train ride to Luxembourg went by in a blur, lots of solitary houses in deep expanses of farmlands and forests. We arrived in Luxembourg to our hotel that was right on the main square. 

1. Things to see

I always try to book places in the center but only sometimes get it right. This time was perfect – the doors opened onto a busy town center at night with lots of cafes, bistros and outdoor seating.

The hotel itself was beautiful, dainty even – with inlaid tiles in the bathroom, soft colored walls and outdoor spaces you could just sit and enjoy the day.

A few blocks from the hotel at a scenic overlook – a carnival was ongoing, seemed mostly to be for children, but I played a few games, a shooting range, a ball trying to knock over some heavy milk cans, watched another kiosk making a square crepe.

Luxembourg is unique because it’s built on levels, you can stand at different precipices and look far down at rivers, trails, and trees (lots of trees). There was a castle in the distance, but it just seemed too far to reach that day.

It’s also difficult to tell who the locals are and who are the tourists – as 49% of the population are foreigners!

Across from the carnival was a hop-on-hop-off bus tour, I don’t usually take these but since I knew nothing about Luxembourg, I thought it might provide some good pictures if I sat on the open-air top. Instead, it turned into 90 minutes from hell. Slowing to point out this important bank, and then a minute later to point out the parking garage for the bank, and then 5 min later to point out another important company and the think column in the center of a median which was a famous sculpture, etc. At one point I turned the recorded tour dial to Japanese, just to make it more interesting.

When I arrived back in town I felt I’d seen less of Luxembourg instead of more!

Back in town, we stopped in the square for some ice cream and beer (not a terrible combination). Walked to the other side of town to be met with an even steeper overlook – where you could stare far down at a little church, river and a lot of houses.

I’m not sure how people can live here, you would need legs of steel to climb all those steps.

There weren’t many people out, so we had the overlook almost to ourselves. Just sat bouncing a rubber ball back and forth (always bring a rubber ball with you on vacation) until an errant bounce sent it over the cliff and far below…. Bye-bye…

The next day we went into the downtown area, a lot less quaint and more utilitarian, a train station, some upscale shops and a lot of square buildings.

View of the church

Flowers on the rock

Around Luxembourg

Sweets

Green

Old buildings

The hotel and around town

Candies

2. Nightlife

Near the carnival were some mulled wine tents and drink stations. People were drinking outdoors and we stopped for a cup.

Later another (indoor) bar had stand-up tables scattered outside on the cobblestone street and we made our way through a few mojitos – watching everyone talking in groups. Weirdly, even when traveling a couple it can get rather lonely as you’re always the outsider, the stranger and you’re never let into the group. In the end, the combination of wine and mojitos left me dizzy and drunk. So, we made our way back to the little fairytale hotel.

Nightlife mojitos

3. Spend

There’s not much to spend on in Luxembourg unless you just have to pick up the latest Gucci bag while on vacation, there were a few cute tourist shops to buy the minimum and keep going.

4. Food

Just off the square, several places had fresh seafood you could choose from, we sat down but no-one ever came to serve us so we eventually left and found a bistro in the central square. If the weather is good most everyone sits outside at the tables.

Just foods

5. Getting Around

I’m guessing the majority of Luxembourg folks get around in cars or busses, I can’t imagine they walk up and down those cliffs each day, although they might?

6. Costs

For a wealthy country, the prices (even for accommodations) were not bad.

7. Tips

Avoid the hop-on-hop-off bus tour at all costs.

Luxembourg was a semi-fun stopover on the way to other cities and had some beautiful views but I’m not sure I’d want to repeat.