LUXE TIME

The city of Luxembourg throbs with history,drama and a touch of glamour

The city of Luxembourg throbs with history,drama and a touch of glamour
The machine is finished. It goes no further. the driver said,his throaty inflexion adding to the purr of the dying engine. The train had hissed its last breath somewhere between Frankfurt and Luxembourg. Go to next stop at Trier,Germanys oldest city. Or run to the next platform,that red train goes to Luxembourg, he said. I looked at my Eurail Global Pass,the 6×3 inch beige pass with my name in sans serif which could take me to 21 countries,but before I could throw a dart on the map,I remembered the silver screens dainty girl with a pearl earring and the brusque Shylock who once walked the cobbled pathways of Luxembourg city. Sacred relics dating back to the time of Christ were waiting next door at Triers cathedral,but that frosty morning was all about pizzazz Hollywood-style. I hopped on to the red train.

Look beyond the bridge. Theres the gleaming blue roof of the restaurant where Scarlett Johansson celebrated her 18th birthday, said Steve Lyons,our guide. We craned our necks and leaned over Corniche,the scenic promenade built by the French and the Spaniards in the 17th century. All I could see was the Holy Ghost Citadel and the lower town of Grund. But no blue roof. Scarlett is famous in Luxembourg for having played Giret,the fictional muse of Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer in Peter Webbers The Girl with a Pearl Earring. But she is not the only one.

Hollywood stars are regular visitors to Luxembourg. You have Bollywood,we have Luxywood,where a million movies have been made. It is a film city, said Lyon.
No celebrity sightings were in store for us,but from Corniche we saw the Bock Promontory,a ledge that Count Siegfried of Ardenne acquired in 963 AD from the Abbey of St Maximin in Trier. This ledge,on which the Count was to set up his castle,is no mundane rockit was here that the history of Luxembourg began,where the crypts were detailed,Bock Casemates (underground tunnels) and 40,000 square metres of bombproof rooms were hewn into the rock,where the first market sprung and where the Alzette river meandered languidly. So strategic was the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg on the European chessboard and so fortified was Luxembourg that it earned the epithetthe Gibraltar of the North.

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I was busy counting the 37 towers and 15 gates of the Wenzel Wall that served as another girdle of fortifications when Lyons interrupted with a glam vignette from The Merchant of Venice,not the Shakespeare original but Michael Radfords Hollywood version where Al Pacino essayed Shylock with a glued-on beard,a burgundy robe and a menacing scowl. Venice was recreated on the moat and the gondola scene where Antonio (played by Jeremy Irons) steps off to seek a loan from Shylock was the talk of the town for months to come, he said,adding histrionics to the rather romantic tale of the country that sprawls on a meagre 2,486 square km.

The warm afternoon melded into a nippy evening,as we walked around the citys main shopping street that shimmered with neon lights and silver mannequins. Pricey mink and many a glittering bauble winked through shop windows. In this city,glamour is all around you,after all this is the capital city of Luxembourg,the worlds 20th smallest country with the worlds highest per capita income. And though it was getting dark,I was yet to see the granite statue of Grand Duke William II of Orange Nassau looking drop-dead on a stallion,the flowers on the wreath of the Golden Lady at Gelle Fra Memorial and the beatific angels as door knobs on 400-year old Cathedral of Blessed Virgin. Not to forget,eat those sinful waffles laden with cream,the carpaccio (thinly sliced raw meat),the paellas and sausages at the Christmas market.
But like in a film,before a romantic climax,came the rain. It thundered down all of a sudden and I had to find shelter on a mahogany pew at the Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin. Hundreds of orange candles etched with Ave Maria were flickered at the altar,their iridescence lending glow to the painted glass windows. It seemed like a perfect scene for the music to fade and the credits to roll.

FAST FACTSGetting there:
Most international airlines. have a flight to Luxembourg. You could also travel all over Europe with a Eurail pass making Luxembourg your base.
Where to stay:
One of the best options is Hotel Le Chatelet. You can books hotels at http://www.hotels.lu. For camping sites check out http://www.camping.lu and http://www.youthhostels.lu for hostels.
What to do:
Buy the Luxembourg card that includes free admission to 50 tourist destinations and free public transport. Price: 10 Euros (1 day),17 Euros (2 days),24 Euros (3 days). You can do a day-trip to Parisit is 2.15 hours on the CFL train (Eurail passes are valid for this journey). Also check http://www.visitluxembourg.lu for details.