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So leaving off from a very quiet start in Frankfurt.
I spent about 2 days in Frankfurt, the first was very quiet but just what I needed. The second day I spent doing a walking tour. We visited the Old town and went to the various Churches around the old town. Apparently, Frankfurt was almost completely demolished during the war and 80% of the Old Town was destroyed. Fortunately, with great foresight, the Germans rebuilt the Old town using the original materials as much as possible and it is a magical (and busy) place these days.
After Frankfurt, I was going to head to Heidelberg but I was struggling to find accommodation there, so decided to go to Luxembourg instead. Arriving here, I booked into the only Hostel in town and then went for a wander around the place. Luxembourg City is pretty small, I think the whole country has about 450k people and Luxembourg city has about a 150k population. It was occupied by the Nazis early on in the war and seems to have been pretty lucky, avoiding too much damage. The city is full of history and grand architeture. It is stunning! It sits on a hill and the city has sprung up and around the hill, with meandering roads and lanes that go up and down and wind throughout the town. The city walls are made up from the rock of the hill and contain the "Casements". These are winding passages and alcoves inside the walls and were orginally built by the Spaniards who used them to hide from invaders. They have also been used as bakeries, butheries etc. Very cool. Along the top of the Casements is the Chemin de la Corniche, a walkway that goes around the inner city. The walkway definitely has the best views in the city.
So, I spent about 3 days exploring Luxembourg City. I was lucky enough to be in the vacinity of the Palace of the Grand Duchy, when his motorcade rolled up and into the complex. Not sure why he needed 8 vehicles in the motorcade, considering how quiet and inoffensive Luxembourg is but it was impressive!
I have found that the World Cup is definitely a good Ice breaker at the moment and on the Saturday night, England were playing USA. I tagged along with some locals to the "Britannia", an english themed pub. It was packed and quite unpleasant so I headed off to find a different pub to watch the game in,. I found a scottish pub which was again full of English folk (curiously dressed as super heroes). This pub was much better though, so I settled in to watch the game. By half time I couldn't see a thing, luckily a friendly local offered to take me to another pub to watch it. So off we went. By the end of the night, I had had a very complete tour of Luxembourg night life. Brilliant night and just what I needed to blow the cobwebs away.
The scottish pub became my pub of choice for watching the other games. It was a mixture of good beer, good bartender and free Wi-Fi. It was here, during the Germany vs Australia game, that I found out I was an aunty again! Hard to keep the excitement in, so I told everyone and there was a very warm round of "Prost" offered. Loved it!
After 3 days of treking up and down Luxembourgs roads, I set off to London. By this stage I was very ready to set foot in a land where I understood the language and people understood me. The French/German/Italian mix in Luxembourg was begining to be quite draining. A very long day of travelling passed (not without some massive mis-directions and mis-understandings) and I finally meet up with Dave. Unfortunately, I was on the Eurostar when the All Whites played so missed the game but was really pleased to hear from Dave that we drew with Slovakia!
Taking my opportunity to chill out a bit, I haven't done a lot in London yet. I've got a while in the UK so will be busy exploring next week. This weekend I am off to visit some old friends and today, I am heading into London town to have a quite wander around the National Portrait Gallery (one of my favourite places) and then meeting up with Emma for a few drinks.
Til next time...
Caroline
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