Little Facts About Luxembourg - Part 1

Luxembourg is also known as the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. It is a constitutional monarchy ruled by the Grand Duke. Luxembourg is the world's only remaining sovereign Grand Duchy.

Luxembourg covers only 999 sq. miles and has approximately 480,000 inhabitants. 60% of the population are nationals of Luxembourg while the remaining 40% are foreigners to the country, just like Paula and I.

There are 3 official languages (Luxembourgish, French and German). English is usually spoken in the business world and many Luxembourg residents are fairly fluent in English as well. Of the official languages, French is spoken the most.

Nearly 120,000 “borderers” (people that live in bordering countries of Belgium, France and Germany) commute into Luxembourg each day and head back at night.

Unemployment is typically less than 5% and on a per capita basis, Luxembourg is the richest country in the world.

Luxembourg has an army of only around 800 and has no navy (as it is landlocked) and no air force. It does share some military planes with Belgium and NATO.

Our First Holiday Trip - Switzerland

After getting our temporary car the other day and having some free time over this weekend due to the holidays on Thursday (All Saints Day) and Friday (All Souls Day), we decided to take a weekend holiday trip. This first trip was to a tiny Swiss town, Saignelegier which is almost 400 km’s from Luxembourg. The main attractions in this town are horse shows and beer. More specifically one of my favorite breweries, Brasserie des Franches-Montagnes (BFM). I was first introduced to their wonderful beers in early 2006, I believe, at a tasting featuring their beers at Monk’s Café in Philadelphia. The brewer, Jerome, was at the tasting and was very interesting and into his beers and into talking about them. Their flagship beer, L’Abbaye de Saint Bon-Chien, was my favorite of that tasting and since then it has become a relatively hard beer to come by and at a high price. Bon-Chien averages about $30 or more a bottle in a bar and a little above $20 a bottle at a bottle shop if you can find it.

Back to the trip to Saignelgier and BFM…..

When we realized that we would have a car and no plans for this weekend, I remembered that I had read on either Ratebeer.com or Beeradvocate.com that BFM was having a special weekend party for their 10th anniversary. At first I thought it would not be possible to get there but once I mapped the route out online and talked to Paula about it, we figured a nice 4 plus hour trip through France and Switzerland would be fun.

After waiting at our flat in Luxembourg until 4:30pm on Friday for DHL to show up with all of our possessions and not having them show up, we decided to hit the road for the 4 and ½ hour drive that covers over 400 kms and has us traveling out of Luxembourg, into France for the largest part of the trip and then into Switzerland for less than an hour. Doing this trip mainly at night was not the best idea for a few reasons. First we didn’t get a chance to take in the sights on the way down and second it is harder to find a needle in a haystack when you really can’t see where you are going. We did print off detailed directions from Google Maps and also brought along our newly purchased GPS unit to put it to the test. At first the paper directions and the GPS were taking us the same way but once we got deeper into the heart of the French countryside, they started to differ. Although both sets of directions probably would have gotten us there, the GPS was a god sent for navigating the little French and Swiss roads. Like most of Europe, these countries have a big thing for round-a-bouts or traffic circles as the friendly voice on our GPS likes to call them. On the trip to Switzerland we probably passed through about 15 traffic circles. After you get used to the rules of driving through one, they are pretty fun and if you miss your turn the first time, you just go around the circle another time and get on the right exit. Just like on National Lampoon’s European Vacation….”looks kids, there is Big Ben and Parliament”.

The drive down was mostly in the dark and pretty uneventful. Oh except for when we stopped for gas and a snack. The problem with that is that I stopped for gas but I had a diesel car. I put in a few litres of gas before I realized what I was doing. After some fretting I filled up the tank with the correct fuel, diesel. I was worried that the car would crap out at some point but it drove fine all the way to Switzerland and back home.

We arrived in Saignelgier before 9pm, a bit later than we had expected but still in time to catch a few hours of the BFM fun. We checked into the Hotel Bellevue which also had a pizzeria, pub and restaurant. We didn’t have dinner yet but decided to head right to BFM. We knew the place was close to our hotel but we were not really sure where and it was getting a bit foggy. After driving around in circles for a few minutes we realized BFM was about 3 minutes or 500 meters from the hotel. We arrived, found a spot to park and were greeted by a gaggle of guys outside the brewery drinking and smoking. The brewery was hard to find as it was basically in a strip mall or small industrial building. When we walked in the party was in full swing. There were 2 main sections of the party. When we walked in there was a small section right in front where a handful of old ladies were cooking up a bunch of food items for the masses. There were about 20 items on the menu including appetizers, main courses and desserts. Across from the kitchen was a section of about 8 large beer hall type tables. There was a large crown sitting down and also at the bar setup behind the tables. On another side of the brewery was another area of 15 or so large beer hall tables and another bar. Hopefully the pictures we took do some justice to the brewery. It had a very homey feel to it as the kitchen, tables where everyone was sitting and the bars were all makeshift. We quickly grabbed the beer list and hit the bar for a few. They had 5 beers on tap including: La Cuivree – a pilsner, La Salamandre – a blanche with some fruit notes, La Meule – a blonde ale, La Mandragore – a funky stout, and La Cuvee de 10e – the special anniversary beer that was debuted at this party. They had their remaining beers in bottle as well: La Torpille, La Cuvee Alex le Rouge, La Cuvee de 9e and L’Abbaye de Saint Bon-Chien 2006.

We started off with drafts of La Meule for Paula and a La Cuvee de 10e for me. Since we were hungry we ordered a cheese and meat plate that was excellent and for 10 Swiss Francs it was cheap. That translates to about 6 euros which is about $8. The beers and the cheeses and meat paired very well together. The beers were served in large special 10th anniversary glasses and were only 4 and 5 Francs, respectively. The glasses were included in the price as well which was a nice treat. Throughout the rest of the night we had a few more beers each. I think I had all of the drafts beers and a few extras during the night. The vibe of the event was really cool. We talked to some of the bartenders and got a few sample beers from them on the house which was great. When I told the one bartender that I really enjoyed their beers and we came from Luxembourg via Philadelphia, he cracked open a bottle of the Bon-Chien and gave us a big glass to sample. Later in the night I ran into a guy from both Ratebeer.com and Beeradvocate.com that was from Switzerland and I had traded some emails with during the past few weeks leading up to the event. We talked beer for awhile and then talked to a few of the friends he was with. While we were talking the crowd started to clear out a bit but the beer and the music continued to flow. At about 12:30 am it looked like things were dying down so we got a few more beers. We were actually going to leave but I was egged on by a few of our new Swiss friends so I got another La Mandragore. This was one of my favorite beers. Although I am not the biggest fan of stouts, this one was malty but had a funky taste to it as well. It tasted like something that Russian River would brew and I love their beers. While I was waiting for my beer to be poured I had a short conversation with the brewer. I mentioned to him that I had met him at Monk’s Café a year or so back for a tasting and my affection for his beers is what brought us to his brewery. He must have talked to my Swiss beer friend Bov as the brewer asked if we were the ones that came from Luxembourg and of course that was us.

It seemed like everyone at the party knew each other and a good deal of them seemed to know the brewer. I was proud that we hung with the Swiss drinkers and outlasted as bunch of them as we didn’t leave the brewery until about 1am and we had another day of drinking at BFM ahead of us.

Day 2. We woke to the sound of a horse clopping around the streets behind our hotel, which did back into a far. I think we counted more horses and cows in out travels around than the town than we did count people. After grabbing a breakfast drink at a local cafe/library, we decided to head back to BFM for some lunch, both in the liquid and solid forms. We arrived at the brewery at noon and were not really surprised to see a pretty full house again. There were more families this time around and children as well. They were not drinking, as far as we could see. We sat down in the back room up against a wall of cases of beer that went to the ceiling. What was cool about the stacks of cases of beer was that they were all in plastic crates instead of cardboard boxes. It seems like a lot of European breweries store and ship their beer in such crates. We were also right next to a stack of cages that were filled with full 750 ml bottles lying on their sides and not labeled. Within these three large cages there must have been about 1,000 bottles or more. Although I don’t have official confirmation of this, I could only believe that they were the 2007 vintage of the Bon-Chien that have yet to be released. As the 10 anniversary beer was only available on draft at this point and not yet in bottles until January 2008, my best guess was that these non-descript bottles were Bon-Chien. I guess we will have to make another trip to BFM to find out in the coming months.

After inspecting the above noted bottles for a few minutes and after taking a few pictures we settled in for some lunch. BFM was nice enough to have a coupon on their website for one free beer per person for this Saturday so we took them up on the offer and get 2 beers free. We had to purchase the glasses this time but we didn’t complain as they were very nice and only 5 Francs each (about 3 euros). Paula had another La Salamandre and I had another La Cuvee de 10e for good measure. The beers went well again with cheese and meat plate that we ordered. The BFM beer mustard was especially good with the cheese and meat. We also got some sort of bread/cream cheese thing that looked like a piece of cake. It was very interesting and helped to soak up the beers. After one or two more beers we decided to buy some beers to go and then head into the countryside to explore more than just the brewery and our hotel.

It was hard to pass by the makeshift gift shop without buying a few things so we didn’t pass it by. We purchased a few things:
1 bottle of BFM mustard
1 package of BFM chocolates
4 bottles of Bon-Chien (750ml)
6 bottles of La Salamandre (33 cl)
3 bottles of La Cuvee Alex le Rouge (33 cl)
2 bottles of La Mandragore (33 cl)
2 bottles of La Torpille (33 cl)
1 bottle of La Cuvee de 9e (750 ml)
And 1 crate to store most of these bottles in.

The total for all of the above was 154 Swiss Francs which converts to about $133 or €92. The € value is much better as that currency is worth a bit more than the Swiss Franc or the US$ but either way you look at it, it was a deal. As I mentioned before the average bottle of Bon-Chien in the US is about $30 in a bar or more than $20 at a good bottle shop, if you can find it at all. The bottles directly at the brewery were about $14 or €10 and based on that I didn’t feel so bad buying 4 of them.

After leaving the brewery and heading back to the hotel to drop off our haul and to pick up the GPS, we headed out of town in no particular direction to see the sights. We drove in one direction for about 30 minutes and encountered a few very small towns that had really nice main streets with a handful of shops and cafes on them. We also drove in another direction that took us through about 5 tunnels through the mountains which was pretty cool and a little scary at the same time. After exploring this direction for awhile, we headed back towards the hotel and went out of town in the opposite direction and found some amazing views of farms, mountains and some very deep valleys. Heading deep in the valleys at certain points I thought the car was going to stall out from coming to such a near shop to navigate some of the very sharp snake shaped turns. We stopped a few times for some pictures and then off we were again. The drive up the valley was a bit more enjoyable as I was able to play race car driver for a period of time…without falling off the edge of the mountain which was possible as there were no real guardrails on the tiny roads.

After having dinner at the hotel pizzeria we headed back to BFM for the night. It was really busy at this point and we had to sit on a bench near the kitchen while enjoying a bottle of Bon-Chien. While sitting there we were witness to all of the cooking operations and even some moments when one of the brewery cats was in the kitchen walking around the pots and pans with food in them. At one point one of the ladies cooking got a spoon full of something from the stove and fed it to the cat that was on the countertop. It was funny to see something that would hardly ever happen in the US. In general we saw a lot of dogs in the brewery and in the towns and restaurants as well. People in Europe have a much different view on having pets near their food than we do in the US and it is nice to see. Eventually we found a few open spots at one of the tables and sat down for a few more beers. When I went up for the next round I was given two new glasses and was not charged. We ended up leaving with 6 special anniversary glasses in total for the small price of 10 Swiss Francs. Not bad at all.

Click here for more pictures from Switzerland and BFM

Car Shopping

This is the temporary car that we have. The Seat Ibiza....stylish, I know.

This is the car we are getting soon. The Seat Leon....more stylish and fast!

Maybe we should get a Porsche like this one in the parking garage of our flat...

As part of the deal of working in my office in Luxembourg, everyone from manager on up gets what is in effect a monthly allowance for a car lease. Not that the firm pays for the car for you but rather they pay for the tax on the car which is a nice bonus in itself since taxes are a bit high here. As a senior manager I get a budget to lease a car up to €950 a month. To put that into perspective, at the current exchange rates that is about $1,350 a month for a car! A monthly car payment here does include car insurance and a certain amount for maintenance on the car as well but to spend that kind of money on a car would be nuts. I am not pursuing a car in the €950 price range but I did see one quote that was for around this price and it was only a BMW 3 Series which is pretty common here and in the U.S.

I started to put my focus on finding a car that had 4 doors and some decent leg and head room but also storage space in the boot (trunk) for traveling to different places. Hoping that we will have friends and family come visit over the next 2 years, we thought a 4 door hatchback would be a good idea. Besides, 90 percent of all cars on the road in Luxembourg seem to be 2 or 4 door hatchbacks so we wanted to fit in.

There is a long list of cars and car makers here that you don’t see much or at all in the U.S. There are also newer models of existing cars in the U.S. that are not yet in the U.S. For example, we were looking at a cool Honda Civic model that is not yet available in the U.S. it is very sporty looking in either the 2 or 4 door hatchback model. We were going to get this car but decided against it for size reasons and the fact that it has a huge spoiler going over the back window that would make it hard to see out of the window.

The other cars we were looking at included a BMW 1 Series which is not available yet in the U.S., probably because it is smaller and gets very good miles to the gallon of gas or diesel but especially diesel. We also looked at a Mercedes A Class. Another smaller funky looking car that is not in the U.S. Although BMW’s and MB’s are usually a bit expensive, these models were somewhat reasonable based on what else you find over here.

After a bit of searching and price reviewing, we ended up picking a 4 door Seat Leon. Another car not available in the U.S. so that makes me feel special, but it is pretty common here in Europe. It is a Spanish car maker. The car is black, has some upgrades on it since it was a car that was in stock. We get heated seats (mainly for Paula), parking sensors, sport seats and suspension, upgraded 17 inch wheels and some other bells and whistles including deep tint on the back windows. I am sure we will look a little out of place in the car but it should be fun to drive as it has a decent sized engine and it a turbo diesel with a 6 speed manual transmission.

First Great Beer Find in Luxembourg!

This is an example of the beer isle in one of the supermarkets we frequent here.


These little kegs are about €15 each and are 6 litres. Not a bad deal at all. Too bad our fridge is too small to fit one.


One of the decent Luxembourgish beers.

What a great way to start the weekend and end my first week or work in Luxembourg. When I got back to the apartment tonight I was surpised by something special that Paula bought for me at a local market. She picked up 2 bottles of Cantillon bottles for me and they were the large .75L bottles. Cantillon Kriek Lambic and Cantillon Bio Gueuze. The best part is the price. 2,97 € for the Gueuze and 3,84 € for the Kriek. I don't have my currency converter out at this late hour but they are both less than $6 a bottle which is less than what you would pay in the states for a bottle half that size.

I finished up the night with a bottle of Duvel at less than 4 € which was also a nice treat and then a crappy beer from Portugal which is not really worth mentioning any more.

Our First Weekend in Luxembourg

After getting settled in our temporary flat for a few days and getting oriented with the city, we decided to take this weekend to explore Luxembourg City a bit more and to decide where to live.

We started our Friday morning with a trip on the Petrusse Express which is a small little train (that runs on the road) and gives you about a 50 minute tour of some of the historic landmarks of Luxembourg. The tour was really interesting as the little train took us down into the valley below the city and through some really scenic park arenas and under some amazing stone bridges. Pictures to follow on this. The best park of the tour was that it was in 5 or 6 languages and one of them was English which was helpful for Paula and I.

After the train ride we wandered around the town centre which we have been doing for several days and really enjoy. We found a place to eat and we did it local style. We each got a panini and ate it while we walked around the William Square which is where the open air markets are held. We sat down on a bench and finished our paninis and did some people watching which is one of the best things to do in squares like this in Europe. There are so many cafes in this area with tons of tables outside and a very good amount of people outside siting, eating, talking and drinking at all times of the day. You would be suprised at the amount of people, men and women, that have a wine or beer with lunch and all throughout the day.

After lunch we jumped on another touristy thing, the big hop on hop off sightseeing bus. Since we are still in our first week here, we fiqured it was ok to still do tourist things since we are not locals just yet. The CitySightseeting Luxembourg bus is a long ride through the city centre and also some of the other close areas including Kirchberg where my office is located and the banking center of Luxembourg. The number of large bank buildings is pretty cool to see and they are popping up everyday it seems.

Arriving in Luxembourg

This is Molly turning her back to us when we arrived at the Lux airport. She arrived via a dumb waiter from the luggage area. She is in protest....

Sunday, October 7th was the departure day for my wife Paula, our cat Molly and I. We flew out of Philadelphia and were suprised when the flight took off on time and landed early. We flew on the German airline, Lufthansa, so I guess it is true that they are more efficient and organized. The biggest stress of the flight to Frankfurt and then our connecting flight to Luxembourg was the travel of our cat Molly as she was in the cargo hold during the flights. She was very good when we left her in Philadelphia and we didn´t get any word from the airline that she was bad on the flight so that was reassuring.

We arrived in Frankfurt on a large Airbus plane (without much leg room) and our connection to Luxembourg was on Luxair, the national airline of Luxembourg. The Luxair was a much smaller propellar plane that we had to board directly on the runway. We were taken to the plane in a shuttle bus and walked right out onto the runway and boarded up a set of small steps. The interesting part about boarding this plane was that they were still loading the plane with our luggage and before we got on the plane we saw an animal crate that looked very familiar. It turns out it was our cat Molly. She was sitting on the runway waiting to be loaded. They were very gentle with her and waited until most of the luggage had been boarded. I should have taken a picture of this as it was a bit funny to see. She was not crying so that reassured us that she was doing ok.

On the Luxair flight to Luxembourg we were in business class but that only meant that we sat in row 4, the seats all throughout the plane were the same. Two rows of seats with two seats in each row. There was a flight crew of 3 or 4 women for the small plane. We found out why that was shortly. Once we were in the air we were served a nice little breakfast that consisted of meats, cheese, crackers and a yogurt thing. We barely had time to finish our very small drinks when they collected the drinks and trays and then the plane began the decent to Luxembourg. It was amazing that they had a meal service for a 35 minute flight.

We landed on time and since the Luxembourg airport is not very large, we were quickly ready to pick up our bags and our cat. The bags came and there was no cat. After talking to an airport information attendant it sounded like Molly was going to come up on the regular baggage system which was a bit scary. She actually came up a few minutes later on a dumb waiter right near where we were standing. She was very happy to see as were we. She was in very good condition and allert, just a little wet from the water in her dish that must have spilled on her.

We were greeted at the airport by a fellow KPMG employee, Sami. He escorted us to our temporary flat in the heart of Luxembourg City. The flat we are currently in is very small and includes a bed that pulls out from the wall and an elevator in the building that barely fits 2 people and a few pieces of luggage. Very charming.

Molly is now staying at a cat hotel for the next few days until we are able to get a long term flat option where we can have her stay with us. The cat hotel is very interesting with all the cats staying in the same room together. They have a nice outside play area that is fenced in and includes a tree to climb on like the monkey cage at the zoo. We will be sure to post some pictures of her hotel when we can.

We are using this week to search out for permanent apartment (flat) options, register with the government here in Luxembourg, open bank accounts, consider leasing a car, and getting use to the city in general. There is alot of history here and alot of beautiful buildings and sites to take in and we plan to do at much of it as we can this week and over the next 2 years.

Pre-move Beer Tasting Party

To help reduce the number of cases of craft beer that we have to pack up and store while living in Luxembourg, Paula and I decided to have a tlittle beer tasting party with some close friends and family. We started out with an abitious plan of tasting about 80 bottles of beer ranging in size from 12 oz's to 3 litres, we managed to work our way through 23 bottles at last count. Not a bad effort if I may say. Below are some pictures of the more special beers we kicked through....