Luxembourg City – April 23 – Saturday

Luxembourg is the second smallest country in the European Union, with Malta being the smallest. Malta is smaller by about 1,000 square miles. Luxembourg is about the size of Rhode Island with half the inhabitants, 570,000. Of the people that live in Luxembourg 47% of them are not from Luxembourg. They come from 160 different countries, with 61% of those coming from Portugal. There are 170,000 people that commute to Luxembourg to work. They come from France, Germany and Belgium. They work here because the salaries are higher and the taxes are lower and they have a good social security system. About 70% of the jobs are held by foreigners; however, it is very expensive to live in Luxembourg.

The government is a Grand Duchy, the only one left in the world. Today the Grand Duke Henry is the leader and he is 61 years old. The official languages of Luxembourg are German, French and Luxembourgish. They must learn these in grade school and then take English as a foreign language when they get into 7^th grade.

Luxembourg is one of the three cities in the European Union to have EU institutions there. The other two are Brussels and Strasbourg. The EU is important for Luxembourg as it employs 12,000 people, who get paid very well. The Luxembourg government gives then additional incentives to live in Luxembourg.

Luxembourg City was a fortress, but 90% of it is gone today. What is now the city park used to be the strongest fortification. But, when the French came they made it into a park. And, I apparently do not have any pictures of the park.

It is still raining and is cold, so we did not take a whole lot of pictures. Here are a few of the town as we walked through it.

The two pictures with the blue tents are near the fountain in the last picture. They are in front of one of the government building where they are going to have a demonstration today. The pictures with the guard are the Grand Dukes palace, and when the Grand Duke is there it is guarded. The last picture should be of a light pole with a face. As you walk past it, it appears that the eyes are following you. They face the palace.

These last pictures are of William II and other pictures in the square.

We were on our own and ate lunch at this soup place, where we forgot to take a picture. It was so good and felt so good on a cold day. We then went back to our buses for the next five hours as we make our way to Paris.