360-degree photos are in Flickr.com (taken with my LG 360).
If my legs and feet could talk, they'd be screaming by now. My hips too.
This is like the Breast Cancer 3-Day 60-mile walks except without training. And it's been ten days now. I think I've done enough walking to last me a year.
I woke up around 4:30 to get to Luxembourg as early as possible. My host was heading to Germany where her husband lives.
The train ride was fairly uneventful. I arrived at Luxembourg station around 11am but had trouble finding the right bus. I got a bus pass but I later learned the busses are free today and the museums are open till 11pm.
My host peeked out of the doorway as I was walking down the street. She showed me the unit and the washing machine. I loaded it up while she took her suitcase to her car. Then we went down to the nearby cafe. She got coffee, and I got the "big breakfast", which was a croissant, a roll, butter, jam, orange juice, and tea. No eggs.
She had to go back to repair the bed, which had a loose board. Then she came back to the cafe to give me the keys and off she went.
After my meal, I walked to the city center to look for the tourist center. It was a 1.2km walk.
I had already paid for the Wenzel tour online a while ago. So they had my name on the list. I was the only one.
Since I had two hours to spare and I wanted to get out of the rain, I followed the steeple of a nearby church, which turned out to be the Church of Notre Dame of Luxembourg. So I took a lot of pictures of that with time to spare.
It was raining again when I went back to the tourist center. The English tour guide arrived right at 3pm. And there were two of us now. The other woman (maybe in her 20s) asked if I was from the US, because she recognized my accent. She used to live in New Jersey but now lives in Malta.
Long story short, our tour guide Loho(sp?) took us around while talking about the history. I was fine until we had to go up spiral stairs about 3 or 4 floors high with no break. After that, he would slow down for me, so the rest was more manageable. But the scenery was beautiful and we even went into caves, so it was very interesting. I also got a short video of a guard walking ceremoniously in front of the grand duke's palace.
I only used my 360 camera on the tour and as we were going to the elevator up, a man came up to me and asked the brand of my camera, so I told him. Then he went ahead of us. Loho seemed surprised and asked, "You're not afraid of a big guy like that?" I just shrugged and said that I'm used to being asked about my cameras because I have unusual ones, so I also showed him my Sony QX-100.
I didn't explain that giant men tend to be gentler actually because they are not threatened; it is fear that makes someone dangerous. And they've learned self-control as children, being bigger than normal kids.
Anyway, this big man seemed genuinely friendly, and I didn't sense danger at all. In fact, he was kinda flirty, because he winked at me when we got into the elevator.
We got back where we started around 6pm, on schedule. Then we said goodbye.
I saw a McDonalds and a Quick burger place and I chose the latter. I haven't had much protein in this trip, so I ordered the Supreme Bacon Burger. And chocolate crepes, which I took home to the Airbnb. :)
Along the way, I stopped to listen to a violinist because he was improvising on some music that sounded familiar. I later realized that he's was playing "Auld Lang Syne". While I was listening, a young woman in a yellow jacket and clipboard walked by and asked if the violinist was good. I smiled and nodded, although I really didn't mean it. He wasn't good as a violinist, but he was really good with his improvisations.
The young woman asked if I lived here and she was surprised when I said I'm from the US. So was her companion who had the same yellow jacket and clipboard. Apparently, not many people from the US come here. Anyway, I gathered they were doing some survey or getting signatures.
Anyway, after listening to one more very long improvisation, I waved goodbye to the musician, who tipped his hat at me, and I headed back with no more interruptions.
No comments:
Post a Comment