Finally the many months of moving are over and we have been in Luxembourg for two weeks, and in our flat for 10 days. We have waded through a mountain of paperwork and feel as if we can finally get on with the business of settling in. It almost seems surreal, living in this very old city. First impressions are: 1. Lovely warm summer days and lots of green trees and parks to provide quiet and shade. Apparently 60% of Luxembourg is covered in forest;
2. Extraordinary prices on almost everything that make us very thankful we bought warm clothes downunder and keep us eating at home when it seems everyone else is sitting in quaint sidewalk cafes;
2. Extraordinary prices on almost everything that make us very thankful we bought warm clothes downunder and keep us eating at home when it seems everyone else is sitting in quaint sidewalk cafes;
3. Extremely well behaved dogs that go everywhere with their owners - including a labrador in the china shop (V&B of all places), a greyhound in a shoe shop and very cute purse-size doggies!;
4. An incredible diversity of cultures and languages, such that it seems we are the only ones that speak one language fluently; most people in the city would speak a minimum of luxembourgish, french, german, and many speak english, dutch or portuguese as well, possibly italian;
5. More of what we down-underlings would class as luxury vehicles than we have ever seen in one place, to the extent that it takes a ferrari to generate minor excitement. Mercedes are as common as Toyota's. Even we drive an Audi - albeit a somewhat scratched 1997 version. More on cars in another post.
Apparently 'most' of luxembourg is on holiday for another week yet, so after that we will really see what life is like and how busy the streets are. However, we have already been to Belgium and Germany (just across the border at any rate).
