Luxembourg City, Luxembourg, Luxembourg

Greetings, blog followers! We've moved on from Paris to explore a few more European cities. First up is Luxembourg City, a place that is right up there with Positano in the rankings for Europe's most unlikely city.

Fun Facts:

Since it's also the name of the country, directions on the map come up as Luxembourg City, Luxembourg, Luxembourg.

Luxembourg (the country) is the only grand duchy in the world- i.e. it is the only place that is still headed by a grand duke.

One of Luxembourg City's most notable features is that it is broken. Oddly, a giant crevice that runs through the entire city. This separates the area into two levels, the high ground and the low ground.

Inside the city's "crack", natural rock mixes with man-made buildings. We even saw a few houses built directly into the cliff face.

A view from the lower area. This bridge connects two sides of high ground.

This is part of the casements, an elaborate system of tunnels that runs throughout the inside of the cliffs. It used to house the military, and also acted as a shelter when needed.

As before, rock mixes with brick for efficient architecture.

Thanks for reading!

Aidan's Greek Myths

Episode 7: Hermes, Hera, and Iris, part 2

Hermes took off the cow's hooves and reattached them backwards, so their tracks led into the field rather than out. For extra security, he fastened brooms to the tails of the cattle so that they would sweep away most traces of hoof prints. Using this method, he herded them all the way to a hidden cave.

Apollo was furious and puzzled when he noticed his animals' absence. Being the god of prophecy, however, he soon figured out who had stolen them and tracked down the thief. He found Hermes pretending to be in a deep sleep in his bed. Apollo was not fooled, and he promptly dragged the child up to Olympus for a trial. They say that Apollo would have done worse, but Hermes pulled out an instrument of his own creation- the lyre- and the god of music was so entranced by its sound that he traded his caduceus for it. Thus, the tension between the two sons of Zeus was eased, but the trial was still held.

Hermes played innocent at first, but eventually confessed to the crime. He was asked to return the cattle he had stolen, and the gods had to take a vote on whether he should receive further punishment.

To be continued (again)...