Luxembourg

Our boast of the Inland Empire in California is that we are only an hour from the beach, an hour from the mountains, an hour from the desert, and an hour from Los Angeles. We can go anywhere easily. We have this in common with Luxembourg, but they have one up on us. They are only a half hour from France, a half hour from Belgium, and a half hour from Germany. They can go anywhere easily. And besides these nearby countries, where do they choose to go? Space!

Yes, Luxembourg is setting the stage to be the country of choice for potential space miners. Having watched this video, I might have a better idea of what Blue Origin, Space X, and Virgin Galactic are trying to accomplish. I’ll have to ask Michele. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAmvndmXuL8

But we can’t only travel to a country for where we can go from there. I want to spend time there, hopefully more time than Allan, who went to Luxembourg as a child but doesn’t remember what he saw, and Barb, who went there one time for chocolate.

The chocolate sounds good and so do the sweet love pretzels and plum tarts. Here’s a video of travel influencers The Endless Adventure exploring and eating the quetschentaart (the plum tart): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IVv-bVn3tI I found the recipe included here (scroll to the end): https://www.expatica.com/lu/lifestyle/food-drink/top-10-foods-in-luxembourg-with-recipes-507809/ Good thing plums are available this time of year! I bought my plums at Costco and made the tart Monday night to take to Kaitlin and Andrea and then again Thursday night for Allan and me. I have enough plums to make it once more. It’s so good that we won’t be complaining!

I definitely want to make the pretzels with the sweet love charm, but I might hold them until Valentine’s Day: https://www.sugarlovespices.com/luxembourg-sweet-love-pretzels/

Luxembourg might be good for Valentine’s Day (chocolate, heart shaped sweet pretzels), but the movie and TV series I found were both unsettling and perfect for when I watched them on Halloween. Mom, you won’t like the movie Gutland, which is listed as horror on Kanopy, and it’s not for kids. It is slow, with long, beautiful shots of the Luxembourgish countryside, a growing disturbance, and a ghastly twist at the end that has stuck with me all week. The Netflix series Capitani has similar themes as it follows a complicated murder case. For a more family friendly drama about a son who searches through Luxembourg for his father, watch Black Dju on Kanopy.

I didn’t find a lot of literature and Ann Morgan will back me up how hard it is to find something from Luxembourg translated into English: https://ayearofreadingtheworld.com/2012/06/30/luxembourg-a-mission-and-a-half/ However, she refers us to Robi Gottlieb-Cahen for some art: https://www.robi-gottlieb-cahen.com/2017/9/26/0mjxf1qg9ixz6z9jg0iyoekttku0ym

Here’s what surprised me because I had pictured it differently: the Battle of the Bulge ranged across Luxembourg as well as parts of nearby Belgium. There is a 1965 Henry Fonda movie and this History Channel episode on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyHqSxokjCc

After the second world war, the United States made a series to introduce its citizens to our NATO Allies. Yes, it’s from 1954, but this blast from the past is fascinating to me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHdEmnxYlLU

The other things I did this week were to listen to Luxembourgish Folk Music starting here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFSUbTifC5s&list=PLnOSH5j1sQh_1JKOS1YKfiDVcWyL2LzCl&index=3 and participate from home in the Sprangpressessioun, the hopping procession: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nehqiAWFGY

Too many of the travel influencers I watched this week only spent one day in Luxembourg. I would love to go to each of the places listed by The Crazy Tourist and that would take awhile! https://www.thecrazytourist.com/15-best-places-visit-luxembourg/

I look forward to that time when we can travel broadly again. In the meantime, I’m hoping we all survive, thrive, recognize our mutual humanity, learn to deal with our conflicts, and allow peace and health to flourish in Luxembourg and throughout the world.

Photo credit: Cedric Letsch https://unsplash.com/photos/0mY01y72UKo