Luxembourg is a tiny European country that is surrounded by Belgium, France, and Germany.

It’s off the typical tourist trail – which was a good thing during the super busy summer 2023 travel season. For us, Jeremy has ancestral connections to Luxembourg, which we learned more about during covid. So, we decided to explore Luxembourg as part of this trip.

With 3 nights in the country, we decided to base ourselves in Luxembourg City and take at least one full day trip. Going into the trip, we had worried that we were going to be there too long, but as it turns out, the country had quite a bit more to do than expected!

Day 1

We spent much of the morning driving from Stuttgart, Germany (Porsche Museum!) to Luxembourg City, as part of our road trip. Luxembourg City is well-connected by train from some cities (e.g. it’s a 2 hour train ride from Paris), but from southwestern Germany, the car worked well. The car also worked well for exploring the Luxembourg countryside.

Along the way, stopped at the farming village where some of Jeremy’s ancestors came from, Wellenstein, Luxembourg. It’s in the Moselle wine region, near the German border. Given its small size, we saw most of the town very quickly. That said, we did snap a few photos by the church in the center where his great-great-great grandparents were likely married.

On arrival to Luxembourg City, we decided to park our car near the train station and walk into the Old Town, also known as the Ville Haute (upper city). The area around the train station was nothing to write home about, but as soon as we started crossing the bridge, I knew that we were going to enjoy Luxembourg City!

Our first stop was the Cathedral Notre Dame of Luxembourg.

The interior has some beautiful stained glass and other artwork.

We wandered around for a while, saw the Grand Duke’s palace and various other sites in the Old Town, including the Gelle Fra memorial monument below. There were a few large squares in the middle and banks around the edges of the center. The Ville Haute isn’t huge, but was cute to explore.

After my feel were sore, I found a little English book store, bought a Luxembourgish cookbook, and found a nice bench to sit on and read the cookbook, while Jeremy and the boys were on their own a bit. What a pleasant way to spend an afternoon!

By late afternoon, it was checkin time for our apartment hotel. We moved the car to the hotel’s small garage, which was a little tricky because it required using a very tight fitting “car elevator.” We’re very happy that we didn’t scratch the car (they check this very closely in Germany where we rented the car), though it was close a few times.

For dinner, we found a cute restaurant on the square and enjoyed a three course meal that included some steak frites, a delicious salad, and a dessert.

After dinner, we took a walk down to the Grund, or Lower Town. There were some ruins (e.g. Cassemates du Bock), nice gardens, and a stream. The area surrounding the center is very green.

Eventually, we took the elevator back up, which, late in the day, is a nice alternative to walking.

Day 2

On our second day in Luxembourg, we decided to take a day trip with the car to see some of Luxembourg’s castles and countryside. The highlights included Vianden (a town with a nice castle), Clervaux (the starting location of the Battle of the Bulge, but a bit underwhelming), Echternach (Little Switzerland), and the Moselle Valley. Look for a blog post dedicated to this day!

After our return in the evening, we went to find dinner. As we had already been in Europe for a week, the boys were craving non-European food, so we somehow ended up getting sushi.

After dinner, we took a short walk, but the rain drove us back to our apartment.

That evening, we ended up reworking some of our trip, last-minute. At the time, there were some riots in France. As we read the French-language news, we noted that the previous night, many cars had been torched in Strasbourg center, where we were planning to go next. Since we could still cancel our reservation that day without penalty, we did so. We then reworked our itinerary to instead go to Ghent and and Cologne.

Day 3

On our third day, we decided that we did not want to move our car and spent the full day in Luxembourg City. We started our morning with Jeremy’s favorite bakery, Boulangerie Patisserie Arbe a Pain, from a previous trip to Luxembourg. The croissants were amazing! The other stuff is fine, but if you want a real treat, get the croissants.

We then started our museum tour. First up was the Luxembourg City History Museum, which was a perfect fit for Jeremy and James. On the other hand, it wasn’t our other son’s cup of tea, but fortunately for him, the museum isn’t all that big.

We stopped at the National Museum (Nationalmusée um Fëschmaart),and also stopped by Église Saint-Michel.

Next up was a visit to the National Museum of Natural History, down in the Grund area, which was a fine museum, if a bit small. Skip it if you are short on time.

Related Content: Harvard Museum of Natural History

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After briefly looking at a few restaurants in the Grund, we decided to take the elevator up to the Ville Haute, or Old Town and get some kebabs for lunch. Yum! Most countries in Europe near Germany and Poland do this type of food quite well.

After lunch, we decided to take a break at our hotel — one reason we generally prefer centrally located accommodations.

Afterwards, we did a little shopping and enjoyed soaking up the atmosphere of the city, which was less intense than our earlier museum blitz. I found some dishes that I loved, but given that they were hand-painted, it was highly probably that the dishwasher would ruin them, so I didn’t bother trying to figure out how one might ship them back to the United States.

Next, we walked towards the gardens in Parc Kinnekswiss and made it to Villa Vauban about 45 minutes before closing. It was a nice art museum, small, but well done. If you have the time, it is definitely worth seeing. If you don’t have time to go in, the flowers out front are still nice to admire.

We continued wandering through the park and found a nice playground with a big slide and a ship. The boys played for a few minutes, but being teenagers, and a little too old for playgrounds, they then joined us on a bench for a while.

Eventually, we decided to go get dinner at a Luxembourgish restaurant. Luxembourgish food tends to be quite simple. James and I got dumplings and ham in a cream sauce, while Jeremy and John got the potato pancakes. John’s had ham, cheese, and an egg on top, while Jeremy’s had smoked salmon. All of us agreed that John’s was much better. For dessert, John got a crepe, James got ice cream, and Jeremy and I got coffee. Mine was a cappuccino chantilly, which turned out to have whipped cream on top and was quite tasty.

We took another walk, then headed back to the apartment to pack up and rest. What a fun 3 days in Luxembourg!

More From Adventures of the 4JLs

Keep reading our travel blog for more adventures in Luxembourg: