DOG DAYS IN LUXEMBOURG

You could call it bad planning. A two-day trip to Luxembourg, to see Florence and the Machine, surely couldn’t be that much of a catastrophe? Not Flo, at least; but perhaps everything else.

 

 

Beer And Chocolate In Brussels

It began in Brussels. Somewhere back in our days of (bad) planning, we had read (or obviously, misread) that the train from Brussels took only an hour to get to Luxembourg. So you can imagine our shock horror when the ticket salesman at Brussels Midi told us the journey would be three hours.

So, to lift our spirits, we spent the day in Brussels. We visited the Manneken Pis, the Grand Place. But no amount of beer and chocolate could prepare us for a very, very long train ride. Endless stretches of mind-numbing green countryside, only occasionally dotted with cows or horses. Eventually, we arrived at our destination: Luxembourg.

Luxembourg

Once upon a time, there was a place called The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. A city out of a storybook, it is complete with a skyline of turrets and towers, dramatic gorges, and quaint riverside quarters. It is also regarded as Europe’s leading financial district.

From the rather sleazy Gare Centrale, we made our way to Hotel Chatelet, a charming B&B on the edge of the Petrusse Valley. We ventured to Place Guillame II, where we chanced upon a brash brasserie for dinner. The sky was a pretty sunset colour. We hoped for good weather the following day. Of course, it rained.

Even under grey skies, Luxembourg does have some picaresque, medieval qualities. The Bock Casemates are worth exploring; a series of damp rock galleries, built in the mid-18^th century, which have been home to everything from bakeries to slaughterhouses, as well as a garrison to soldiers during WW1, they provide unique views of the valley and the lower town.

But other than the casemates, and the Musee d’art Moderne de Grand-Duc Jean, the city’s striking modern art gallery located in Kirschberg (somewhat of an “apocalyptic plateau”, severely lacking human presence, on the other side of town), there is really little else to see. Even an attempt at retail therapy in the city centre was thwarted by a lack of original shops and boutiques. We could have visited the Musee d’Histoire de la Ville de Luxembourg, or trekked out to the military cemeteries. Instead, we drank hot chocolate overlooking the Palais Grand-Ducal, and then headed back to our hotel to prepare ourselves for the concert.

Florence And The Machine At Kultur Fabrik

It was in the afternoon that disaster almost struck. We were quietly sipping tea at the hotel, when we thought to have a look at Flo’s support act. Straight to the internet, and just as we were searching, we found ourselves suddenly confused.

Florence and the Machine was presented in Luxembourg my music promoter Den Atelier, a music venue a few hundred metres from our Hotel However, upon closer inspection, we discovered that the concert itself was being held at Kultur Fabrik, an abattoir-turned-music-venue in Esch-sur-Alzette, 17km from Luxembourg City.

For a moment, we thought we were in the wrong country. Somehow, we managed to get a train from Gare Centrale to Esch in 22 minutes, followed by a decent walk along Rue de Luxembourg to Kultur Fabrik. All we wanted by the time we got there was beer, and a ‘Florence’ t-shirt.

Luckily, we didn’t miss anything. Florence was amazing; she saved the day with her ethereal, bellowing voice, and trance-like performance. She played all our favourites: ‘Dog Days’, ‘Raise it up’, ‘Drumming song’. She is a truly enigmatic stage presence, softly spoken, but full of energy, and genuinely engaged by the music she sings. We danced away, amid the small throng of fans – Kultur Fabrik is actually quite an intimate space, and we managed to get pretty close to the stage.

Exhausted from all the jumping, (and also from all our rail journeys) we made the last train back to Luxembourg City, content with out souvenir t-shirts, and the knowledge that we would never have to visit Luxembourg again.