Golf & Luxembourg

The 10th hole at Kikuoka Golf Club. (On for 1 and 2 putts!)

Well we got our golf fix at a beautiful golf course outside Luxembourg City at a place called Canach. The course is Kikuoka Country Club and you can check it out at Kikuoka.lu 

It was a 30 minute bus trip and a 20 minute walk to get there but well worth it. We hired clubs for the day and because of the storms they've been getting you'd struggle to find greener fairways anywhere on the planet. The greens were much slower than what we're used to though.

How could you miss a green with fairways like this?

Luxembourg is a strange place. The three nights we've been here there have been different brass bands playing in the rotunda in the city square. We know there is a big event planned there for Friday night so maybe this is all a build up to that? We're interested to see if another band rocks up tonight. 

Luxembourg has 180,000 workers crossing a border daily to get here. They drive short distances from Belgium, France and Germany. The pro at the golf course yesterday lives in France, shops in Germany (it's much cheaper) and works here. When the storms hit on Monday, traffic out of Luxembourg was at a standstill on all roads out.

Today we did a tour of the "Bock Casemates", a series of sandstone tunnels that date back to when Luxembourg was one of the most envied fortresses in Europe. The Spaniards  built them in the 17th century and at that time there were 24Km's of them. There are 17Km's of them remaining and they're one of the country's major tourist attractions. 

A cabin amongst 17Km's of tunnels

The gun placements are all much larger than they were originally due to the 19th century agreement to de-fortify the city. In that same deal, they were able to gain independence. There were plenty of steps, narrow tunnels, and great views to take in. The guide was a pretty animated chap but certainly knew his history.

Our Casemates guide Mohammad

One of the many cannon placements. Much bigger than they were originally.

We've just returned from a long walk. We decided to see how things operated away from the City plateau and walked to Central station where we arrived from Belgium on Monday. It was an interesting enough place to sit and watch the comings and goings. Being an international station as well as domestic it certainly provided an interesting cohort of travellers. 

A neat view of the abbey.

We didn't particularly care after that which direction we took so opted for a route along the river. It has a couple of massive horseshoe bends so we covered a considerable distance. Eventually, we were suitably lost enough to fire up Google maps to guide us home. Overall, it’s been a pretty lazy day. It’s now stubby o’clock.

What you see on a river walk in Luxembourg.

We have one day left here to do a few things. Who knows what at this stage but our buddy down at the tourist information will no doubt come up with something good as he always does.

Cheers.

And hey, look. The boys have been busy and finished the planting.