Our Thanksgiving plans were drastically changed due to COVID. We had planned on going to Belgium for 3 days, and then end in Luxembourg for one day on the way back home. I booked all of our train tickets and hotels and began planning. The week before Thanksgiving, Belgium hit the "high risk" list and since our 2 youngest are not fully vaccinated, that would mean for them to have to quarantine for 10 days upon our return. Therefore, Belgium was now off of the table. We cancelled train tickets and decided to tack on another day in Luxembourg. We rebooked train tickets for the Friday after Thanksgiving and took off for the little, but very wealthy country. Upon arrival in the evening, it almost immediately began snowing big fluffy flakes--our first snow this season! We headed out and went directly to their Christmas markets. The markets near us in Germany had been cancelled for a 2nd year in a row, so I felt incredibly grateful to get to be at the ones in Luxembourg! I absolutely loved the food, the little carnival rides, the Christmas things for sale, the music, the atmosphere and just being around people! Even though we were having fun, the snow was so wet that we were drenched very quickly and the kids shoes were sopping wet. They were freezing. We headed back to the hotel to get warm for the night and get a good night's rest.
This was the Gelle Fra Memorial.
Enjoying some gluhwein!
Snow!
The next day it did not snow on us, so we were happy to not be wet and drenched even though the snow had been beautiful! We went to two of the Christmas markets the night before and the one below (2 sides of the street) was the one that we hadn't made it to. At the very end of this post, you will see pictures of when we came back to this market in the evening.
Isn't the Luxembourg metro so cool? It was free as well! Gotta love wealthy countries ;).
This was the Notre Dame Cathedral in Luxembourg.
We came across the Luxembourg City Hall and the famous lions that sit out front. Right next to it, there was a carousal-like ride that Embry had to check out. Eli was a good sport and rode it with her.
We love our hats with fuzzy pompoms on top!
We had some good views of Old Town before we headed down the elevator to go walk through it.
Bike tire anyone?
We then headed towards the Bock Casemates (carved out tunnels in the rock) that had been first built by the Spaniards in the 17th century. It has been used numerous times through wars to hide bombs, be a shelter, and at times to be a slaughterhouse, stables, and a place to store things. The tunnels go on for a long time. We were not able to go inside (due to COVID) but we got to view them from the outside.
The aqueduct there was beautiful.
For lunch, we decided to head towards a Ramen restaurant that Danny had spotted earlier in the day. It was delicious and I enjoyed Chamomile tea (with real flowers floating in it) with my noodle bowl. It definitely warmed us all up!
After lunch, we walked to the Grand Ducal Palace and saw the guards as well. We found a chocolate shop across the way and wandered in. We had to buy a bit as well!
We then headed back to our hotel to rest for an hour or so before we went to the Christmas market we had missed. The street our hotel was located on was really pretty. The buildings were so fun to look at. I especially liked the castle house (below) that we would walk by.
After napping for a bit, we headed out for some more Christmas fun!
You can see that Embry was loving life! Eli looked creepy with his hood down (he's in the swing next to her)
Every market had to check for our COVID Pass/QR code to get in. We would walk through these tents to get checked and get a bracelet. Thankfully the 2 youngest did not need a covid test beforehand.
There were 3 singers singing American songs and the kids enjoyed it.
I ordered some goulash and gluhwein while Danny ordered a brat that helped knock out one of Embry's loose teeth. We also had hot cocoa. The night before, Evan had ordered some churros that you could dip in nutella. They were scrumptious.
The tooth is out!
From the 2 nights, we ended up with 4 mugs. A lot of people go to all of the Christmas markets they can and collect the different mugs from each one. I'm sad to say that this market probably will more than likely be our first and last for 2021 due to all of the cancellations. I really enjoyed it and I am grateful that we spent a bit longer in Luxembourg than we had planned previously.
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