My son and so are thinking of two nights in Luxembourg. We will be coming from Brussels and when we leave we will be going to Paris.
Any tips on how to get there and how to leave? Can we get around the city without a car when we are there? Main reason we are going is my son wants another stamp in his passport, will we get one?
What can we do when we are there? Museums? Attractions? Anything?
There are no immigration requirements to get into Luxembourg from any surrounding countries. They are all Schengen members. So there is no place to stamp his passport. The best your son can do is get a selfie next to a sign that says "Welcome to Luxembourg".
As far as getting there, there are many trains from Brussels, some direct and some with one connection. Once you are there, there are 5 TGV's direct to Paris every day.
Nope, nobody looks at the passport, no passport stamp. You probably won't notice that you are crossing a border.
Sort of like driving from Texas into New Mexico, but without the big sign. Sorry.
Luxembourg is very three dimensional - lots of deep bits and lots of high bits. Pastel colours in the city are nice. Great castle at Vianden. I don't know if it would be excessively stimulating for your son, but there is a great Battle of the Bulge museum (I see you are going to the D-Day area in another post) in Diekirch. The battle is seen from the point of view of soldiers of the two battling sides and of members of the civilian population. It can get a bit loud.
General Patton is buried at the American Cemetery near the airport.
Luxembourg has a good and very cheap integrated network of buses and trains (CFL) and a tram system.
We arrived at Luxembourg by train and left by bus. There is a good network of local buses.
If your only reason is a passport stamp, you might want to reconsider this portion of your trip.
Your passport will only be stamped when you first enter and finally leave the Schengen Area. In between not. Not only will it not be stamped in Luxembourg, depending where you enter and exit it may not be stamped for Belgium or France either.
"Can we get around the city without a car when we are there?" - I cannot think of any city in Europe wher a car is the best way to get around within the city.
We drove that route for a similar reason... my daughter has a scratch off map of the world. We drove from Antwerp to Luxembourg and stopped in Bastogne, where they fought the Battle of the Bulge. It was an excellent museum that kept my girls, ages 8 and 10, engaged for 3 hours. it provides an excellent overview of the European conflict from the end of WWI through the end of WWII. Here's a link: https://www.bastognewarmuseum.be/en/your-visit/#/undefined.
Bastogne is a cute town... drive down in the morning, see the museum and go to the town for lunch. Then drive to Luxembourg, wonder around, and have dinner. Sleep, and then go onto Paris the next day. One night should be enough. I think we parked on the street with no problems, but don't exactly remember.
Good luck!
That’s a shame about the stamps, my son gets obsessive about things and stamps and coins are two of them. I’m sure we will enjoy it anyway.
He is a military history buff so we will definitely check the Battle of the Bulge museum. We’ve always used the Rick Steves guide books and he doesn’t have a Luxembourg one!!!
"my son gets obsessive about things and stamps and coins are two of them."
While he won't get a stamp in his passport, and Luxembourg uses the same euros as elsewhere (see below for clarification), they do print their own postage stamps. If he's interested in these, a trip to a Luxembourg post office or stamp collecting store may be of interest.
The euro notes are the same in each euro country. Each country mints its own euro coins, with the same front designs but with distinctive back designs. However, since they are all interchangeable, you will get coins from everywhere in each country. So, you cannot count on seeing Luxembourg euro coins in Luxembourg. However, he may want to look at the backs of all the change you get, to see all the different kinds. It is fun to get a Greek coin in Paris, or a Finnish coin in Amsterdam. And of course, there are more of the coins from larger countries in circulation (Germany, France) than smaller ones (Latvia, Malta - or Luxembourg).
Here's all the €1 coins; click on this list on the left side to see other denominations: https://www.ecb.europa.eu/euro/coins/1euro/html/index.en.html
Alas for your son, the days when each European country stamped the passport on the way in and on the way out are over. He can still investigate places that require a visa in the passport, although even these are dwindling with the rise of electronic travel authorizations. For instance, when I went to Australia in 1996, I needed a visa put into my passport, but they don't do this anymore (at least for US visitors). However, my sister is going to Cambodia and Laos, and she now has full page visas for each country in her passport. Visas are quite something, as they can be very elaborate, usually have holograms and other security features to prevent counterfeiting, and usually take up a full passport page. Something for him to look forward to!
That is a good suggestion from Harold. Get your son to try and collect €1 coins from every country that issues them. Some are easier to find than others.
Or maybe €0.10 or €0.01 coins, its cheaper!
I love that coin idea. I knew they were all Euros but I never knew the backs could be different! That is actually the perfect goal for him.
There is a certain amount of national pride put into the selection of symbols for Euro coins. For example:
Full set of photos here: https://www.ecb.europa.eu/euro/coins/1euro/html/index.en.html
