To me, Luxembourg has been a small countries with big surprises. The Luxembourg city is surrounded by history and beautiful nature, making it easy to explore and hard to leave. I allowed myself only two days to explore Luxembourg out of my 21 travel throughout Europe in April 2017. I had travelled to Netherland for 6 days, followed by 3 wonderful days in Belgium, before setting my foot in Luxembourg.
Out of two days, I spent one day enjoying the “Little Switzerland”, a name given to region in eastern Luxembourg which has geographical similarities to those with Switzerland. As for the remaining day, I planned exploring the Luxembourg City. On this posts I will share about places you can visit in Luxembourg City if you only have one day.
Few Facts about Luxembourg
Luxembourg is the smallest country in the world that is not a European microstate or island country. Its total area is 2586 km2 and its population is 600,000 people. Half of its permanent residents are foreign, and its capital city (the Luxembourg city) has 17 km of underground tunnels cut out of solid rock. That is why, the city of Luxembourg is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Luxembourg has three official languages, which are French, Germany, and Luxembourgish. It is the third richest country in the world after Qatar and Macao based on GDP-PPP (purchasing power parity) on 2020.
Getting Around Luxembourg City
The good news about transportation in Luxembourg, is that public transportation in Luxembourg is FREE. This includes bus, tram, and trains within Luxembourg. The exception applies to night buses and first-class seat on the train. Of course, you can rent a bike for EUR 2 per day, and you can also travel around by car.
For Bus schedule, you can read it more here, and for tram and trains, you can also access it here and here respectively. It is good to know too about Luxembourg Card, an access card to 60 museums and tourist attractions in Luxembourg. It costs 13 EUR for 1 day travel, and EUR 20 and EUR 28 for two days and three days respectively.
Places you should visit if you only have one day in Luxembourg
Depends on how many hours you have in one day, you can add and or eliminate one of these places. I personally went through all of these place from 7 am to 3 pm before I went to Brussels and continued my journey to Switzerland by plane. I selected these place based on highlights of the city, combined with my interest on architectures and art Museum. However, if you are not into city exploration, you may want to head to Luxembourg’s Little Switzerland and do hiking there. Check out my post about Mullerthal hiking trail here.
in the map above, i also include two major train station in Luxembourg, which is Gare Centrale and Kirchberg Gare Routiere. I hope that by putting those train stations visitors can get a sense where’s the places of interests in Luxembourg are located and their distance to the stations.
Chemin de La Corniche
Chemin de La Corniche is a pedestrian along the city fortification with the view of small river on the bottom. Having these beauties, it is dubbed one of the most beautiful balcony in Europe. The walk on the pedestrian starts at St. Michael’s Church and the Schlassbréck bridge to Rue Du St. Esprit and the National Archives building with a view of Alzatte Valley.
The main view of Chemin de La Corniche is Alzette Valley and area named the Grund. Walking around in Chemin de La Corniche is not complete without exploring the Grund. Chemin de La Corniche is just an appetizer to its main menu, The Grund that lays below.
Casemate du Bock and The Grund
Casemate du Bock is UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was built in 17th century under Spanish rule to protect Luxembourg city from its surrounding countries. This underground tunnel is 17 kilometers in length, and it used the cellars of the medieval castle as their basis. Original Length was actually 23 kilometers, but in 1867 it was torn down. However, some of the parts cannot be torn down without taking down the city, so the 17 km of subterranean tunnels remain. Entrance to this place is 7 EUR.
After visiting underground tunnel of the bock, you can explore the Grund, beautiful quarter on the banks of Alzette River. You can go down by walking, or using a lift. In the Grund area, make sure visit Church of Saint John in Grund, next to Neimenster abbey. The baroque style church is with beautiful details and serene when visited during the morning.
The visit to Chemin de La Corniche, Casemate du Bock and the Grund may take about 3-4 hours. When I went there, casemate du bock was closed, so I walked along chemin de la corniche and got lost in the Grund. I arrived around 6:30 am and leave the place at 10:30 am towards Cathedrale Notre Dame.
Cathedrale Notre Dame
This church has gothic architecture style and renaissance elements on its adornment. It was built on 1613 and has three towers (source: Wikipedia).
Mudam (Grand Duke Jean Museum of Modern Art)
This museum is probably one of the best art museum I have visited so far in Europe. It stands on the site of Old Fort Thungen, and you can see the remains of the fort on the museum backyard. The museum was established in 2006 and it focuses on contemporary art. I found some mind-blowing art exhibitions and pieces there and it clearly gave colors to my short visit in Luxembourg City. If you are looking for inspirations and wanted some changes from the medieval Luxembourg, this Museum will serve you best. This museum opens from 10 am to 6 pm, and it costs 8 EUR for the entrance fee.
Walking around Ville Haute
Ville Haute is quarter in Central Luxembourg, historical center of Luxembourg City and a UNESCO World heritage Site. While getting lost in the area, try to visit these historical buildings such Place Guillaume II, Place d’Armes, Notre-Dame Cathedral and Grand Ducal Palace.
I hope visiting these places will give your experience in Luxembourg memorable. To me, visiting these places has been inspiring and completed my Europe experience.
