Portuguese in Luxembourg

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This year Alejandro and I decided to visit Luxembourg. This country has fascinated us ever since we watched an episode of Madrilenos por el Mundo in Luxembourg and saw how well people live there and how beautiful this small country is. Luxembourg also has a huge Portuguese community and I truly felt at home there!

LUXEMBOURG

Interesting facts about Luxembourg:

Luxembourg is the only Grand Duchy in the world. Which means they have a Grand-Duke and Grand-Duchess, instead of a King and Queen.

Foreigners account for nearly half of Luxembourg’s population. Portuguese represent 16% of the total population and make up the biggest group of the foreigns.

Luxembourg is the richest country in the world, according to the projections for GDP per capita for 2019. Luxembourg has the highest minimum wage in the EU: 2,071 EUR per month.

Nearly half of Luxembourg’s workforce commutes to work in Luxembourg from another country. Most non-Luxembourg nationals traveling across the border are French, Belgians and Germans.

Luxembourg is home to many stunning castles. Several castles have been preserved and restored, and are very much worth visiting.

We’d been meaning to visit Luxembourg for quite some time, as it always felt to us like a fascinating little place in the middle of Europe where we could even see ourselves living in a few years time. This year Ryanair opened a direct new route from Malta and we saw it as a sign and decided to book a trip right away.

We stayed at Melia Luxembourg for three nights and paid a total of 310 euros. The room was very comfortable and it was at a walking distance from the historical city centre. There was also a free gym and sauna.

Next our hotel there was a big park and an old fort with a lovely view. One thing we loved about Luxembourg is the amount of green and nature you see everywhere. Even in the city centre, next to monuments, you can find always a park or a small forest.

We explored the narrow cute street on our way to the city centre and took a lift to go up, as Luxembourg is surrounded by valleys and stands tall on top of a hill. The views from the lift were breathtaking as well.

Once we got up there, we started by visiting the Old Quarter. The Old Quarter in Luxembourg is the perfect place to kick off a trip to this delightful country and is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The center was surrounded by graceful ancient fortifications that once were known as the Gibraltar of the North but were destroyed in 1883. Nowadays you will find tree lined cobbled streets as well as lush parks and gardens. As you wander around you can check out scenic bridges and winding alleyways.

We stopped at Place d’Armes. In this square there’s the Cercle Cité Luxembourg, which is an early 20th-century palace and former government building, now used for exhibitions & events. There was this piano on the street, for everyone to play, and this random guy started playing Queen songs and was truly amazing! We stayed there a bit just listening to him play. In this square there was a street market, where people were selling second-hand things.

We continued walking and saw another nice street market in the square where the Monument of Remembrance is located. This monument has a golden statue on top which is the symbol of the city. There we met a dutch guy who’s married to a Portuguese woman that was selling Portuguese Delta coffee and pastéis de nata. He even had chocolate pastéis de nata, which were divine!

This street market was really close to the Notre Dame Cathedral, so we went there to check it out. This cathedral was built in the 17th century by Jesuit priests. One of the signature features here is the north gate which is baroque in style and is covered with pretty stained glass that dates from the 19th -20th cent.

As well as traditional structures you will also find modern pieces of sculpture as well as a famous statue of the Madonna and Jesus in miniature form that sits over the altar. It is also famous for its crypt which contains graves of members of the Luxembourg royal family and which is guarded by two lion statues.

After that, we decided to cross the valley through the main bridge and check the other side of the city. The views are incredible. And on the other side we saw all the Portuguese banks and shops. I really felt at home!

On this side of the city we had lunch in a Vietnamese restaurant called Nhân Nhân. We went to this place out of despair, as we were starving but it was already 3pm and all the places had stopped cooking meals. It was an amazing choice, the food was unbelievably good. Totally recommend it.

Once we were done with exploring the other side of the city, we took a bus and went back to the old town. Over there we visited the Palais Grand-Ducal, which is the official residence of the Grand Duke and royal family of Luxembourg and is one of the most stunning feats of architecture in Luxembourg City. It dates from the 16th century and mixes a range of style including romantic touches and medieval and Gothic designs.

Close to the Palais, we saw the Place Guillaume II. This square is known for its spacious open areas that used to be the location of a Franciscan convent. However, when we went there we didn’t see any open spaces, as some construction works were going on and because there was also a food market happening there that weekend.

In the middle of the square there is a famous statue here of William II on horseback who was the King of Holland and the Grand Duke of Luxembourg, and also the Town Hall. We also randomly found a nice park with lots of colourful flowers close by.

We stopped to have lunch in a Portuguese restaurant called Resto Cafe Bodega. I ate octopus and drank our national beer Super Bock. Again, felt super at home. At the end I started speaking the the owner and she was very lovely.

All the Portuguese people we met there were very lovely – they made me proud 😉 Pretty much all the businesses we saw on the streets were owned by Portuguese people, I was amazed! From fancy restaurants to tobacco & convenience shops. And all of our drinks and food products were available in all supermarkets. Crazy!

During our stay, we went to visit Alejandro’s friend from Venezuela – Anghelina. She moved to Luxembourg two years ago, and already has her life in order. She’s working at Amazon and just had a baby and bought a house. She told us that living there is amazing – the quality of life, salaries, services, etc.

We had dinner at her house with her family, and ended up sleeping in her couch, as we got a bit tipsy and lost the last buses to go back to the centre. She lives in a place called Esch-sur-Alzette. According to her, this place is pretty much ‘owned’ by Portuguese people. Even in governmental institutions, things are written in Portuguese as well, as if it was an official language 😮

When we woke up the next morning we went to explore this city a bit. It’s really close to the French border. Then we took a train to go back to the centre and rest a bit at the hotel.

Later that day, we visited the Walls of the Corniche, which look over the city down onto a valley. This is also the spot where the Gate of the Grund is located which was built in 1632 and there are a range of houses and other curiosities in the area such as St. Michael’s Church and the Abbey of Neumünster which has a famous pipe organ as well as a ‘black virgin’ from the 14th century.

After that, we visited Bock Cliff, known for its cannons and its fortifications. It is here that the Casemates du Bock are located and we went to explore them. These are a series of underground passages in a 17 kilometer long tunnel, initially carved out of the rock by the Spanish between 1737 and 1746.

Being a shelter for more than 35,000 locals and thousands of soldiers during the WWI and WWII, the Casemates is known for its historical importance in Luxembourg. Consisting of atmospheric passages, different levels and impressive rock stairways, the historic tunnel of Casemates is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

For our last day in Luxembourg, we decided to take a bus and visit a different city – Echternach. This city sits on the banks of the pretty River Sûre which is also on the border with neighboring Germany. The town is famous for a few of its festivals such as an international music festival that is run from May to June as well as a dancing procession that has been held here for centuries on Whit Tuesday. In the town itself you will find old fashioned houses, winding streets, and medieval architecture that hark back to another era.

If you visit the town of Echternach then make sure to check out the Benedictine Abbey which dates from the seventh century and has an adjoining museum. It is made up of four buildings and a central courtyard and the basilica here has a huge amount of religious significance throughout Luxembourg. One of the reasons for this is that it contains a crypt with the sarcophagus of St. Willibrord which is made of white marble and the vaults here are covered in colorful frescoes that were painted in the 10th century.