6/8/2011
It was the most beautiful drive to Luxembourg; I’m really bummed that I slept through more than half of it. The scenery was so very green, with an occasional break of cute little canals and rivers. There were gorgeous cathedrals and the most amazing architecture everywhere and when we were getting closer to the hotel it didn’t stop. About fifteen minutes from our hotel I spotted an Ikea and we started getting off at the next exit, so I was very excited! Unfortunately, we stopped because a bus driver here can only drive for so long, so they had to trade him out, even though we were so close to the hotel. I was in love with the city of Luxembourg as soon as we entered it. That amazing architecture and the greenery didn’t stop on the freeway, it just continued throughout this entire country. I was pointing left and right to each building, telling Zane just how in love with them I was. I saw a sign for the Parc Bel Air and I gasped at what an incredible building it was, but then I remembered we were staying at the Parc Plaza. We stopped at a red light and I looked out the window and told Zane not to look at the building, because it was ruining the beautiful country because it looked like a Dentist’s office that was built in the 1970s (U-G-L-Y). The light turned green and we went about 100 feet and stopped… that ugly building was our hotel! I was totally bummed, but once we got off and had to walk through a maze to get to the actual main building I was greeted with the most beautiful view. The hotel was basically on top of a large Hill and overlooked one of the most beautiful valleys. You could see this incredible bridge down the way and it was absolutely picture perfect. We finally got inside of the building (which they had modernized and wasn’t as ugly as the other buildings) and checked in. Our room is nice, but kind of weird. When you first walk in, to the left there is a door that encloses the toilet, then there is a nice little rack and place to hang your clothes, next to that is a door frame that leads to a sink and the shower. Oh boy, the shower. So I don’t really understand their layout of rooms. You see the shower has a half pane of glass and that’s it. The towels are hanging on the opposite side of the shower head, but are still in the shower. This all boggles my mind, but even more than that… half the people in our group are in doubles like ours, in what world are you down with taking a shower that doesn’t have a door that is in a bathroom that doesn’t have a door when you’re staying in a room with complete strangers? Thank goodness Zane and I are married. The rest of our room is alright, we have a nice bed, a lounge chair, a little desk, and a ghetto tv that at least has interesting channels. Well we dropped off our things and seeing that it was almost 8pm, we decided to head out and grab something to eat. On the bus, Professor Del Duca was talking about the center of the town (that’s really close to the hotel) that has almost 6,000 restaurants and they have a stage that usually has a local band playing every night. We asked for directions from Professor Nanda and headed out. It was a little tucked behind some buildings, but it was pretty easy to tell where you were once we got there. Professor Del Duca was right, there were tons of restaurants; unfortunately for us, they all cost a fortune! A freaking salad was 24 Euros at one place (maybe it’s because of the whole e-coli bit that’s going on), but there was no way that we could afford that, so we grabbed some burgers. Zane was smart and went to Quality Burger and got “The Big Bacon,” I’m pretty sure it’s now his favorite hamburger. The sauce on it “tastes like beef jerkey” and he would recommend it to anyone. I went to McDonalds, because they had all these advertisements of “Premium Chicken Sandwiches” that looked amazing, too bad it didn’t taste amazing. However, I did get an incredible Magnum Brownie Mcflurry with it. After we were done, we were both freezing and the jazz band was only warming up to play, so we just decided to head back to the hotel for the night.
It was the most beautiful drive to Luxembourg; I’m really bummed that I slept through more than half of it. The scenery was so very green, with an occasional break of cute little canals and rivers. There were gorgeous cathedrals and the most amazing architecture everywhere and when we were getting closer to the hotel it didn’t stop. About fifteen minutes from our hotel I spotted an Ikea and we started getting off at the next exit, so I was very excited! Unfortunately, we stopped because a bus driver here can only drive for so long, so they had to trade him out, even though we were so close to the hotel. I was in love with the city of Luxembourg as soon as we entered it. That amazing architecture and the greenery didn’t stop on the freeway, it just continued throughout this entire country. I was pointing left and right to each building, telling Zane just how in love with them I was. I saw a sign for the Parc Bel Air and I gasped at what an incredible building it was, but then I remembered we were staying at the Parc Plaza. We stopped at a red light and I looked out the window and told Zane not to look at the building, because it was ruining the beautiful country because it looked like a Dentist’s office that was built in the 1970s (U-G-L-Y). The light turned green and we went about 100 feet and stopped… that ugly building was our hotel! I was totally bummed, but once we got off and had to walk through a maze to get to the actual main building I was greeted with the most beautiful view. The hotel was basically on top of a large Hill and overlooked one of the most beautiful valleys. You could see this incredible bridge down the way and it was absolutely picture perfect. We finally got inside of the building (which they had modernized and wasn’t as ugly as the other buildings) and checked in. Our room is nice, but kind of weird. When you first walk in, to the left there is a door that encloses the toilet, then there is a nice little rack and place to hang your clothes, next to that is a door frame that leads to a sink and the shower. Oh boy, the shower. So I don’t really understand their layout of rooms. You see the shower has a half pane of glass and that’s it. The towels are hanging on the opposite side of the shower head, but are still in the shower. This all boggles my mind, but even more than that… half the people in our group are in doubles like ours, in what world are you down with taking a shower that doesn’t have a door that is in a bathroom that doesn’t have a door when you’re staying in a room with complete strangers? Thank goodness Zane and I are married. The rest of our room is alright, we have a nice bed, a lounge chair, a little desk, and a ghetto tv that at least has interesting channels. Well we dropped off our things and seeing that it was almost 8pm, we decided to head out and grab something to eat. On the bus, Professor Del Duca was talking about the center of the town (that’s really close to the hotel) that has almost 6,000 restaurants and they have a stage that usually has a local band playing every night. We asked for directions from Professor Nanda and headed out. It was a little tucked behind some buildings, but it was pretty easy to tell where you were once we got there. Professor Del Duca was right, there were tons of restaurants; unfortunately for us, they all cost a fortune! A freaking salad was 24 Euros at one place (maybe it’s because of the whole e-coli bit that’s going on), but there was no way that we could afford that, so we grabbed some burgers. Zane was smart and went to Quality Burger and got “The Big Bacon,” I’m pretty sure it’s now his favorite hamburger. The sauce on it “tastes like beef jerkey” and he would recommend it to anyone. I went to McDonalds, because they had all these advertisements of “Premium Chicken Sandwiches” that looked amazing, too bad it didn’t taste amazing. However, I did get an incredible Magnum Brownie Mcflurry with it. After we were done, we were both freezing and the jazz band was only warming up to play, so we just decided to head back to the hotel for the night.
9 June 2011
I was up by 6 getting ready for a long day ahead of us. We went to breakfast, in that ugly building I first saw when we arrived, and it was really elaborate and delicious. We finally got the entire group together and hopped on the bus (with our fabulous driver… I was praying he wouldn’t get us lost today) to go to the Court of Justice of the European Union. We were actually on time for once, and we had to wait for our tour guide before going through security. They gave us the sweetest heavy duty visitor badges that made us all feel legit. That was just the beginning of our realization of how incredible the building really is. We walked past a coffee shop, the biggest cafeteria ever, a bank and several other things on our way up to the briefing room. Zane and I were in awe of how awesome the briefing room was. It seriously is something you see on tv. We were the first group to arrive, so we were able to take some pictures and look around. Two other groups joined us before the briefing began. I didn’t quite fully understand what we were being briefed on; once she started talking about farmers it kind of lost my interest. I felt kind of bad for her because I’m not sure if I was the only one that lost interest because no one asked any questions. She had a really nice presentation though. She had a power point going on and was full of information, besides them telling us and the fact that she looked like she was 15, I wouldn’t have known that she was a trainee. After we were briefed, we walked across the way into the most incredible courtroom that I’ve EVER seen. Wow! It was beautiful. We all took pictures while we were waiting and got our ear pieces ready. Zane was super bummed when no one was in the booth to translate to Portuguese. We sat through, in my opinion, the most boring case we’ve been to, but it was still so awesome to be there. The case ended up being about discrimination against farmers of certain ages… I think. There were five judges (depending on the severity of the case, you can have a group of 3, 5, or 13 judges hearing the case and if it’s something so extreme (which hasn’t ever happened to the secretary’s knowledge) they can have all 27 judges present) and the Advocate General. I took lots of notes, that I’m sure won’t be useful to anyone… ever, but they helped keep me alert. After that we had a half hour break to get drinks or snacks. Zane and I decided to wait until lunch and then we were off to a little meeting room. We had a really nice time in a question-answer type setting with a legal secretary and a trainee of Judge Schiemann (from England). I think they had somewhat of a presentation prepared, but never got around to it. They were full of information and they made it fun to learn about the court. After them we had a President of Chamber (from Belgium) present to us who also was very insightful. We then broke for an hour and half lunch! They had so many choice of food, but as soon as I saw pasta, I knew what I wanted (too bad I can’t read French, or else I would have known that the sauce had tuna and anchovies in it…), but we loaded up on bread and I got this really cute and yummy looking tart for dessert and we got glass bottles of Minute Maid apple juice all for 13 Euros!! It was the nicest meal we’ve had in days and it was probably the cheapest too. We ended up going and getting more juice because they were only 90 cents each (which was such a blessing, because most CANS of soda have been 2.50-4). After lunch we went back up to our little meeting room and a trainee of Advocate General Sharpston addressed us with a nice presentation about everything you have ever wanted to know about an Advocate General. I’m actually really sad that I didn’t tally how many times he said Advocate General in that hour, because I wouldn’t have been surprised if it was in the triple digits. We then sadly were done with our court visit and had to leave that incredible building (we wished we could go back there for all of our meals in the next couple of days) and were headed back to the hotel. We changed and went back to the town center and walked around. We found their Notre Dame cathedral, which was sadly under construction, but we were still able hear the beautiful bells. Found the Palace of the Grand Dukes, which was absolutely beautiful, but was surrounded with other buildings so I couldn’t take a good photo of it. We went to some shops and realized they all were starting to close around 6, so we stopped for some cheap and absolutely delicious gelato (because we weren’t very hungry after the huge lunch we had). I had kiwi and raspberry and Zane had cookies and cream and strawberry. The kiwi was the best! We went back to the hotel so Zane could read and ended up staying in for the night.
10 June 2011
I’m really disappointed in myself today. After breakfast I wasn’t feeling as well as usual, so when Zane when to class, I went back to sleep. I woke up around 10 and had already told Zane I would finish up my shopping while he was gone, so he wouldn’t have to be tortured again, so that’s what I did. I don’t know how I managed to get to H&M because I’m pretty sure I was still half asleep. I walked right past Cathy (Prof. Nanda’s wife) and I feel so bad because I only managed to get a few words out and it was the last time I was going to see her L. I wander around in and out of shops looking at all the beautiful things I will never be able to afford (unless the dollar somehow skyrockets in value). I still felt sick, so around noon I headed back to the hotel. I was able to say goodbye to Professor Nanda before he left (we’re really going to miss him and his wife!). When Zane got back from class, he asked if I wanted to go to a castle (the one on our wish list) with some of the other girls, but it was an hour away and I still felt awful, so we didn’t go. I tried talking Zane into going and taking lots of pictures for me, but of course he wouldn’t leave me. After resting for a little bit, we got up and walked to a grocery store, but they actually don’t sell any medicine at them, so we just picked up some juice and goodies and headed towards the center. We quick grabbed some big bacon burgers, hoping that it would help. We found an apothecary where I was able to buy some ibuprofen 400mg (without a prescription J) in the coolest box that has brail on the outside of it (I think it’s brilliant!). I took some right away and headed back towards the hotel. Zane decided to start on his homework early and I took a nap. When I woke I was feeling much better. So we decided to take a walk heading across the bridge to the opposite area that we’ve been going to. The view over the bridge was absolutely beautiful. As soon as we got across the bridge we saw these incredible buildings and of course took lots of pictures. We walked past little cafes and shops, but I couldn’t resist just walking past one that had shoes on display for 15 Euros. We went in and I found a cart full of shoes for 5 Euros!! I found two really great pairs of heels and then the rest of the store was set up sort of like a Forever Young with shoes all over the store with clothes along the walls (apparently they had an upstairs just of clothes too, but we didn’t make it up there) and I found a pair of flats as well. I was the last purchase of the day and I was stoked that I was coming out of the store with 3 pairs of shoes for under 22 Euros. Too bad it was our last day here, because I just found my new favorite store! We kept walking towards the train station, which was gorgeous! We didn’t really see much past it, so we turned around. We walked back the same way and enjoyed everything one last time. I forgot to mention that there was a cute little park that was really well kept and maintained that was dedicated to the martyrs and victims of the Nazis. It was incredible. We walked back towards the hotel and decided we would go get gelato one last time and went back to the town center. We ran into Amarilla on our way over and invited her to join us. I got the cookies and cream with chocolate hazelnut and Zane got melon (they didn’t have kiwi today) and raspberry. They were both delicious. Just as we were finishing, Melody and Jon were walking by and it started to rain, so we walked back to the hotel with them. We stayed in for the rest of the night and talked with our families and watched tv that we didn’t understand.
11 June 2011
We got up and had breakfast before checking out of the hotel. We were second in line to Pam and Mallorie, this time, to get onto the bus. While waiting for the whole group we looked at all the pictures Pam took of the castle and I was SO very jealous (and angry that I didn’t suck it up and go). Pam also told us it was only 3 Euros to get there and back and the castle was also inexpensive to get in. We really want to try to make it back if we can. I’m really upset that we didn’t accomplish anything on our wish list while we were in Luxembourg. I was really sad to leave Luxembourg and their beautiful country, non-sandpapery toilet paper, inexpensive shoes, castles, incredible architecture, and town center. The only thing I won’t miss is the breeze coming into the shower and their prices on food J. Finally around 11, everyone was ready to go and we left heading towards Strasbourg. We didn’t fall asleep this time, so we could look at the countryside and listen to good music. It was another beautiful drive and didn’t stop when we got into France. Not before long, we were stopping at a gas station to get food. We had an hour because we were close to the hotel and didn’t want to get there earlier than check in. Zane got sandwich, yogurt, and a drink combo, while I got some bolognaise and chicken with thyme flavored chips to go along with it. I was most impressed with the chicken with thyme chips; it really tasted like a chicken dinner in your mouth. I want to stock up before going back to the states! Oh, we also tried the cranberry magnum bar that was delicious. We sat around and talked with everyone before getting back on the bus.
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