A Brotherly Visit

My brother, Wes, and sister-in-law, Rachel, came a few days this month for their first visit to Luxembourg (although not to Europe, as they've been a few times before). 

Before I share some more photos, I'm taking the liberty of a brief aside:

The standard tourist review of Luxembourg (if you can even find one in the first place) is that you don't need more than a couple hours to see all the whole country has to offer.  While this is an exaggeration to be sure, I see their point.  Still, the sad side to this view (and one which I think we Luxembourg-dwellers take a bit too personally, perhaps) is that people often go on to state that Luxembourg, therefore, is not worth a visit at all.  

We've been extremely fortunate to welcome quite a few visitors over the past year.  (Thank you, to each and every one of you!)  Almost without fail, we hear from them something like, "You know, for a country I really hadn't heard of before and isn't mentioned on any travel sites, it's really quite nice!!" 

Well, we like to think so.  Our pet theory is that everyone who says dismissive or demeaning things about Luxembourg on a travel website (or says nothing at all...I'm looking at you, Rick Steves) is actually secretly in love with Luxembourg and wants to keep it unspoiled, protecting it from becoming overrun with tourists.

Well, we hope people continue to visit and re-visit.  Honestly, I think knowing someone and staying with someone when you visit a place like this makes all the difference.  

Even if it's just The Ts.

All that to say, Wes and Rachel seemed to share that sentiment of pleasant surprise by our little adopted country.

(Okay, after seeing their pictures of France from later in their trip, I'm really glad they came here first, but still...)

All right, aside finished.  On to some shots from our time hanging out in Lux-ville.

The Church in the Rock, on Pete's route to work

If you come to Luxembourg it is required (I think by law) that you have your picture taken at this bridge in the Grund with the Amazon.eu office in the background

lunch across from the bridge

continuing through town

the Casemates

that's Uncle Wes and Nephew James in the crow's nest

Aunt Rachel and Niece Daphne on the turtle's back

Pick-up game with random 10 year olds.  Can I just say this is so my brother and so my husband?

meeting for traditional Luxembourgish food after work

this menu item is called "various Luxembourgish specialties"

One more note about eating at a traditional Luxembourgish restaurant - we hadn't eaten here since we first arrived in Luxembourg.  After a year of eating lunch at Luxembourgish school three days a week, it was really fun to hear the kids exclaim, wide-eyed, "Hey! I eat that at school!" as each of our dishes came out.

I'll probably do one more post of our mini-excursion to Vianden when I get around to it.