Today we sailed into Trier. We arrived mid morning so we got to sleep in if we wanted. Spent the morning catching the blog up.
About 1 we boarded three coaches and headed off to Luxembourg. It was a nice drive and on the way we stopped at the US War Cemetary and memorial. The cemetary is actually American soil and over 5,000 soldiers are buried there. Close by is a German Cemetary with over 10,000 buried there but our guide said it was not well kept and very few people visited. He said mostly school children so they could learn the impact Hitler had on the country. He said it was not something the German people really wanted to revisit, unlike us who honor our fallen heroes.
From there we drove into Luxembourg which even though it is a small country is one of the wealthiest countries in Europe. One of the four original founders of the European Union, Luxembourg has over 200 hundred banks in the country. When Germany added a 30% tax on interest earned, close to $200 billion in euros moved from Germany to Luxemburg. The average income per person in Luxembourg is $110,000 Euros per year, although a great many of the works in Luxembourg live in Germany and Belgium because it is cheaper to live there. Gas, tho, is almost 30% cheaper in Luxembourg than Germany because of taxes.
We fought our way through rush hour traffic to get back to Trier, enjoyed dinner then had a marvelous concert by a group called La Strada, a man on guitar and a couple from Russia, one on violin and one on cello, who were just fabulous. The musice the violinist created with his instrument was amazing and when he and his wife played, it was just wondeful. They played classics like Verdi and Rossini then some Hungarian folk songs. They also had CD's to sell and I noticed they sold quite a few - 2 ended up in my room :-)
Picture 1 is Yvonne from Melbourne who, like me, is travelling alone. We had stopped for some "cake", as she says.
Picture 2 is for my sister Cindy - cupcake in Luxembourg
Pictures 3-5 are of the Luxembourg Cathedral, which was just beautiful inside. We had to come back twice to get in between services. Our guide told the story that he stepped in with a group at the tail end of the service, waited quietly while the priest finished his service, then at the very end the priest said "and the coach leaves in 5 minutes". He was also the driver for a group who was there for the service.
Pictures 6-9 are different segments of the wall that used to surround Luxembourg. The city was a stopping off point for other countries - France to attack Germany, Germany to attack France. Luxembourg had maintained its neutrality until the end of WW II when it tired of being the stepping stone and joined NATO. All of Luxembourg's bridges are less than 100 years old, having bridges would allow people to invade Luxembourge and thus defeat the purpose of the wall.
Picture 10 is Patton's headquarters. Dad loved Patton so had to get a picture.
Picture 11 is a view of the city from atop a section of the wall.
Picture 12-15 are from the WW II Cemetary just outside of Luxembourg. The first picture of the group is of Patton's grave (that one is for Dad too). Although he did not die in Luxembourg, he wanted to be buried with his men. Over 5,000 Americans are buried here and the land was deeded by Luxembourg the United States so we were actually "in" the United States when we stepped foot on the site.
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