Instead of laying around in bed too long, we got up and out of the house to drive to Luxembourg. This is our halfway stop on our way to visit Pierre and Claude Immer in Pully (a town just outside of Lausanne, Switzerland). It was getting hot, later to hit 98.6, your body temperature, but Kees' KIA is air conditioned. Oh, thank goodness.
We hit pockets of heavy traffic from time to time but not too bad. We arrived in Luxembourg City at about 3:00. Driving into the city we came across this building with a large umbrella extended on a balcony. What people will do to combat heat.
As we usually do when we arrive in a city that we have never been to, we follow the signs to City Centre, or Centrum, or whatever the word is that that country uses. In lieu of that, we look for church steeples. That usually means the same thing. Once at the center, identified by a pedestrian street, we start looking for a parking place. The first place we find is on the street and a tight fit. After wrestling to fit the car in, we read the signs and figure out we can only park there for 30 minutes - not good enough.
Down the street is a parking garage with tiny parking slots. But, after giving up on one, we find a larger tiny spot. Walking out of the garage, we look around to try and remember where we came out. Linda wants to go to the right and follow the crowd, but I take us to the left and we end up walking all the way around the garage and back to where we started. Looking around the buildings we were walking past looked very governmental. After turning a corner we came upon a very large building with a guard marching back and forth. Later, we saw a sign indicating it was the Council of Ministries building, i.e., Parliament.
Then we found our way into the "old town" and the main square.
There was a bandstand at one end of the square and just as we entered the square, they started to play. I walked over to take a picture and to see who they were. I think they were high school age kids. I started talking to one of their leaders who was English and came from the Midlands. The players were the Robert Smyth Jazz Band and Big Band and Soul Patrol in Leicester. They played all through our dinner at one of the cafes at the edge of the square. Very, very good. And, don't you know, they had a very talented sax player.
I ordered a steak and frites and Linda had a Hake fish. The waitress asked me how I wanted the steak cooked and I asked her what she suggested. She said - raw. We both smiled and I said why don't we go with medium rare? She smiled as if to say that was a good decision. It came just as I ordered it: crispy on the outside and very rare inside. Went well with a dubbel (dark) beer.
We had a little trouble getting out of town somewhat complicated by not having the Garmin setup correctly. Once out of town we ran into multiple backups caused by trucks pulled over to the side of the road, a little construction, and lots of "nothings" where all of a sudden we speed up. It took us over an hour to travel 30 kilometers. That's tiring.
Once we got off the highway, the Garmin took us in a circle and we were about to go around again, until we saw our Ibis hotel and figured out how to get there.
Ibis hotels, Linda was introduced to them last year by Joy Weston, are cheap, clean, and basic. Seems like a real bargain.
And, and, and - the room is air conditioned. No elevator, and we're on the 2nd floor. But, did I say, its air conditioned?
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