Moien,
I recently visited Alex in Luxemburg. It was only 23euro to travel from Gent to Luxembourg (international!). Luxemburg has hills, sun and because Alex is pro it is his shout for food for the week. I am there.
My friend Rafe told me there are special racks for bikes with seats next to them on intercity trains. Rafe is annoying because despite my now having caught 10 trains in Europe I have never found these special racks and have always ended up standing in the doorway with my bike. Well with about 13 hours of bad experiences it was 11th train lucky: I finally found the grove!
The train went from Gent – Brussels – Luxemburg with about 15 stops between Brussels and Luxemburg. It is about 290km but takes 4 hours. I had a book and ipod fully charged so no problem.
Once in Luxemburg I had to catch another train to Alex’s little town, Esch-Sur-Alzette. I had no idea how to pronounce this so I stupidly showed the ticket person my phone with the text from Alex. Apparently it is known simply as Esch, pronounced Esch, I think Alex was having a laugh. But the real reason why I was so unsure was the language I heard once hoping off the train. I know what French or German sounds like but what they were speaking in Luxemburg was completely different.
Alex met me on the platform in Esch. It was very weird seeing him at this time of year because he has been away racing every NZ winter since 2006. My first question…
“What language do they speak here?”
“Luxemburgish” he replied
“WTF”
I have never heard of this language in my life. You can’t just add ish to the end of your country’s name and call it a language. Right? Well, apparently you can: English, Spanish, Swedish, etc I feel quite silly the more I think about it. Luxemburgish is mainly German but spoken and pronounced with a lot of emphasis on the different syllables. Alex’s German flatmate Sasha finds it very entertaining to listen to. “Moien” is their casual hello.
The day I arrived Alex and I went for 3 hours training. It was so nice to be climbing hills and have something else to look at other than canals and flat. But then the hills became less fun as I tried to keep up with Alex.
In the evening a casual walk to the gelato store turned into a 20 min drive to Luxemburg city for sightseeing and a banana split. Luxemburg city is the most beautiful city I have seen in my travels. The inner city is protected by a 40-100m wall so it is elevated above the surrounding land. Around the city is an amazing mature garden that looks sunken into the land. It would have been a very safe place to live in the old days. I still get taken back by how old these cities are and what they were able to build 100s of years ago.
The Gëlle Fra (Golden Lady) is a statue on the goddess Nike on top of a column. It was created in 1923 to commemorate the Luxembourgers who lost their lives in the first world war.
Pro cyclist desert menu, there is a separate one for amateurs.
The next day Sasha, Alex and I went for a very international ride. Luxemburg – France – Germany – Luxemburg about 160km in the beautiful sunshine. I am becoming used to swapping countries without it being a big deal but I still find it very fun. When crossing borders you notice the road change. Luxembourg roads are perfect, perfect enough that Alex and other riders in his team do not even take spare tubes training. Boom France, roads have rough chip (smooth NZ chip) with potholes and road works. French roads are still nice to train on though as there are fewer cars. German roads are a cross between the two but are about another 1 metre wider.
Once in France we rode past a nuclear power station. Another first for this Kiwi, I have never been that close to nuclear fission. Next to the power station was a man-made lake, about the size of Hamilton Lake, that was used solely for cooling the reactor. So much steam comes from the four chimneys that clouds form around the area on a sunny day.
Alex and Sasha had a post-tour criterium to do in Kortrijk, Belgium. Great, pretty much all the way back to Gent. It was fun to go in a car though. Cars have become a novelty as I live by bike and train in Europe. Boring cycling stuff happened most of the day but the most exciting thing was I got to drive!! Here are a couple of photos.
(white knuckles)
The hardest thing was making sure the right hand side of the car does not hit anything. Even though everything is opposite you still want to line the left wheel where the right wheel would go in NZ; very dangerous when over-taking trucks on the motorway. Alex had my back.
It was supposed to be a post-tour criterium but I think it was just an exhibition race. There was no special area for the riders and the only pros to turn up where not that famous outside of Belgium. Here are some photos: FDJ won the day.
(Alex on the front of the break, BMC rider 3rd wheel)
During our car trip, we had to fill up with gas. You would pay about 1.54euro per litre of Diesel, Unleaded 95 about 1.84euro. But Luxembourg has different petrol prices, as they have no tax or very low tax, so in the weekends there are queues for petrol from cars coming from the neighbouring countries. Inside the petrol stations there is duty-free style shopping with hard liquor, cigarettes and tobacco: lots of tobacco.
The BUCKETS(!) are full with tobacco for roll your own cigarettes.
“Don’t be silly, buy Piccadilly!” Piccadilly is a type of drink Luxembourg celebrates once a year. It is half wine and half vodka and served in a typical wine bottle. I would not drink it all the time but it was ok…ish. For the celebration they set up a massive tent that can hold around 5000 people on a massive grass reserve. Then around 7000 people a night, over 3 nights, come and pretty much get absolutely wasted. Piccadilly is the only drink sold.
Bye for now
Courtney
