Bonjour!
Sooooo, we've been extremely busy, and I haven't much time to check e-mail, etc, but when I can, I am trying! Linda... I'll email you the thing asap, I dont have the zipcode here on me right now...
Anyway, we've done some more cool things on our orientation trips... we've had the opportunity to go to the Moselle region of Luxembourg (on the border between France, literally separated by the Moselle river. The moselle region is known for it's amazing wine production (mostly white wines... apparently the soil isn't sandy enough for red grapes). We first visited La Musee du Vin to see exactly how wine was made historically by smaller winemakers. We tasted a wine at the finish of the tour, it was pretty tasteless for wine, but meh.. whatevs. Next we headed to the Domaine Vinsmoselle winery. It's a coop winery for the growers around, they jointly purchased the equipment to create some of Luxembourg's best wine and champaigne equivalent (did you know it cannot be called Champaigne if it's not from Champaigne, France? In Lux, it's called Cremant). We tried three different types of white wine and le Cremant... they were all excellent (and suprisingly cheap... so we got a bottle for our host mom).
That night we hopped the train to Lux City and tried to find a restaurant that Taylor read about in his travel book. After less time searching for it than the bar the previous night, we did find that it was pretty ritzy for our group (plus we had 12 people!) Sooo, we resorted to Quick Burger... the european equivalent to McDonalds. Not the best food ever, but we feel we gained cultural insight (yeah, right...) :P
Yesterday we had an amazing day of visits. We first went to Merche, Luxembourg to visit a high school (not in session), where the headmaster gave us a great lecture about Medieval Europe/Luxembourg. After that, the school served us lunch and we had another lecture by a historian about the Battle of the Buldge... it's incredible to hear about how appreciative Luxembourgers are about the Americans that helped in WWII... they understand the meaning of liberation, truly, and are appreciative of our efforts elsewhere in the world since they have firsthand experience.
After Merche, we went to Clervaux to see the photo exhibit "Family of Man." Now--I appreciate art as much as the next guy, but don't find myself generally interested in it a lot. This exhibit was incredible, however. It was pictures of all facets of humanity, portrayed in such powerful ways... it was really neat. After that, we went to the Abbey at Clervaux to go to a vespers service.. it was incredible to say the very very least. Truly awe inspiring.
Ah! I must go! See ya later!
xnatex
Sooooo, we've been extremely busy, and I haven't much time to check e-mail, etc, but when I can, I am trying! Linda... I'll email you the thing asap, I dont have the zipcode here on me right now...
Anyway, we've done some more cool things on our orientation trips... we've had the opportunity to go to the Moselle region of Luxembourg (on the border between France, literally separated by the Moselle river. The moselle region is known for it's amazing wine production (mostly white wines... apparently the soil isn't sandy enough for red grapes). We first visited La Musee du Vin to see exactly how wine was made historically by smaller winemakers. We tasted a wine at the finish of the tour, it was pretty tasteless for wine, but meh.. whatevs. Next we headed to the Domaine Vinsmoselle winery. It's a coop winery for the growers around, they jointly purchased the equipment to create some of Luxembourg's best wine and champaigne equivalent (did you know it cannot be called Champaigne if it's not from Champaigne, France? In Lux, it's called Cremant). We tried three different types of white wine and le Cremant... they were all excellent (and suprisingly cheap... so we got a bottle for our host mom).
That night we hopped the train to Lux City and tried to find a restaurant that Taylor read about in his travel book. After less time searching for it than the bar the previous night, we did find that it was pretty ritzy for our group (plus we had 12 people!) Sooo, we resorted to Quick Burger... the european equivalent to McDonalds. Not the best food ever, but we feel we gained cultural insight (yeah, right...) :P
Yesterday we had an amazing day of visits. We first went to Merche, Luxembourg to visit a high school (not in session), where the headmaster gave us a great lecture about Medieval Europe/Luxembourg. After that, the school served us lunch and we had another lecture by a historian about the Battle of the Buldge... it's incredible to hear about how appreciative Luxembourgers are about the Americans that helped in WWII... they understand the meaning of liberation, truly, and are appreciative of our efforts elsewhere in the world since they have firsthand experience.
After Merche, we went to Clervaux to see the photo exhibit "Family of Man." Now--I appreciate art as much as the next guy, but don't find myself generally interested in it a lot. This exhibit was incredible, however. It was pictures of all facets of humanity, portrayed in such powerful ways... it was really neat. After that, we went to the Abbey at Clervaux to go to a vespers service.. it was incredible to say the very very least. Truly awe inspiring.
Ah! I must go! See ya later!
xnatex
Comments
Love you!
Linda (and the gang)
I thought you wouldn't have access to the I-net until tomorrow?!?! Now I find you've been bloggin away. Tu est fou.
I just saw a travel show on Edinborough, Scotland. Sucha beautiful city. If you guys go to it: be sure to take a tour of the hidden city below (and take a small cloth doll with you - you'll find out why); the evening bagpipe performance at the castle also looked awesome.
We're sending Taylor's parents the Rick Steves DVDs for western Europe and the one on travel skills.
If and when you go to Paris, be sure to check out the hotel Plaza Athene restaurant run by Alain Ducasse. The madeleines there were the best I have EVER tasted - there's something about the butter they use in France that is simply incomarable to what we have here in the US. I attended a BI IT managers conference there and the meetings were held in the hotel. They served the madeleines as the afternoon snack and I was so enraptured by them I wrapped some in a napkin for later that evening. C'est incroyable! Espensive, oui - mais, le bonne, absolutment.
We're printing your blog and mailing to it the non-electronic among us! (Grandma, Aunt Jan).
Laissez le bon temps roulez!
A bien tot,
Ton Pere.
Jake & Karen
Sounds like you are getting well acclimated to the culture of Luxembourg. Remember to take lots of pictures for those of us who can only finance these exploits but cannot go ourselves :-)XOXO
Mom