Heading to Luxembourg

Heading to Luxembourg

Accommodation: Hotel Francais

I got on my flight to Brussels Charleroi on time and it looked like everything should be running smoothly, but once we were fully boarded, they found an issue with the plane that meant we had to sit on the tarmac for an hour while all the paperwork got signed off. Once we finally took off the flight was a simple two hour flight and we got into Brussels at 6pm instead of 5pm. I went straight to the Hertz desk, picked up my Opel Corsa (which was not as nice as the exact same car I had gotten from Enterprise a few weeks earlier), and started heading to Luxembourg.

It was a pretty drive through Belgium for about an hour and 45 minutes of the journey with not much to see besides trees and fields. Some parts of it reminded me a lot of Connecticut actually. The roads here are easy to navigate and I got to Luxembourg city without an issue. I found the parking lot that was recommended to me by the hotel at a place called Glacis. I had to double check the machines, but sure enough, it is free to park there at night and on weekends, so I am in luck! I was expecting to have to pay about €30 per day to park, but it won’t cost me a penny.

It was a nice 8 minute walk to Hotel Francais which is right in the center of the city on the main square. I couldn’t have picked a better location if I tried. I got to see a little bit of the city on my walk to the hotel and it looks really nice. It looks pretty Belgian to me (surprise surprise). A lot of stuff in French, a lot of stuff in German, and I can’t read any of it.

I was surprised again at my hotel when I arrived with a beer from a friend of mine who had called ahead. This time it was a pint poured at the restaurant downstairs, but the timing couldn’t have been better, I was definitely ready for a beer! It’s much hotter here than I had expected so I enjoyed my ice cold beer and a shower before heading out into the city.

I checked out Trip Advisor for a recommended restaurant and the top one was a Mediterranean place called Ambrosia. Conveniently it was just a five minute walk from my hotel (as are most things in this tiny city) so I had a wander down and had a phenomenal first meal. I went with the recommendation of all the kinds of meat with a potato gratin side dish. I was not disappointed.

After dinner I went for a short walk around the city and then just came back to the hotel to try and get some sleep. I’m pretty knackered after the flight and drive here, so I’m looking forward to a good night’s sleep and an early start on the road tomorrow. Off to explore my 69th country 🙂

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