On spec I took the TER to Luxembourg. Travelling anywhere by train here seems to be fun. The shear scale of investment in trackwork. Why we thought it was a good idea to unload cars in Port Kembla then truck them up Mt Ousley back to Sydney I don’t know. Of course you see endless trains full of German cars heading across the landscape here.

All the industry is clustered along the tracks. So you get a backroom view of a lot of operations. And relics like the abandoned BF site between Thionville and Hagondage. (wish I had my camera out for that one).

Luxembourg itself is pretty interesting after a week in Metz. Lots more languages spoken in the streets. Lots of tourists from everywhere. My favourite were the American bemoaning how expensive everything was. It was outrageous. Must be novel for them.

If you haven’t been before, it is an old fortified town straddling a deep river cut valley with shear sides. I’ll not try to do a better job summarising what’s there see wikipedia. But the things I enjoyed were the cool of the valley, looking up at the heavily fortified city. I wonder how impressive it must of looked before they dismantled most of the fortifications?

I’ll go back with May at some point and do the underground tour of the fortifications.

I also checked out the ArcelorMittal headquarters. Odd, isn’t it. See the tiny logo on the column left of the door (ok, there was a limit to what I could resolve with my camera), but given the choice of building I was surprised by the restraint.