This church sits on the oldest religious site in the city, where the castle chapel of the Counts of Luxembourg was built in the 10th century. The church has gone through many incarnations; it was destroyed, rebuilt and renovated many times throughout the centuries in different styles including Gothic, Romanesque and Baroque. The current building […]
Archive | Destinations RSS feed for this section
Villa Vauban
This small but important museum is housed in a 19th century urban villa in the middle of a lush, landscaped park. The museum’s peaceful, timeless setting is ideal for showcasing its collection of 17th-19th century European paintings, sculptures and drawings. The current exhibit, “Treasures from the Burkenthal Collection: Brueghel, Cranach, Titian, van Eyck”, features 15th-18th […]
Fivers
It turns out the best shop in Luxembourg does not sell luxury goods, artisanal chocolates or contemporary art. Rather, it sells Vibram FiveFingers (although I suppose it’s not a stretch to consider these an art form!) – a dizzying, enticing, overwhelming array of FiveFingers in almost every style and color. This is the first FiveFingers-only […]
La Fête Nationale Luxembourgeoise
Luxembourg’s National Day is the equivalent of America’s July 4th. There’s booze, grilled food, fireworks and bands. The party starts on the eve of the actual holiday around 10 p.m. and goes all night, you need your jacket because the June temps are only in the sixties and there’s always a threat of rain – […]
Hay Doors
The youngest building in Hay is at least 200 years old. Sadly, many of the buildings have been rendered, thereby hiding their once exposed timber exteriors. I liked the colored doors adorning many of the old buildings. Hay, Door, Wales
Three Tuns
This is the oldest surviving house in Hay-on-Wye. It was built in the 16th century as a three-bay cruck truss (the original cruck truss is still in place) timber-frame building and is now mostly encased in stone. The bar has an inviting Inglenook chimney and original features such as a dog-leg staircase are scattered throughout. […]
Kilverts
Kilverts is not just a restaurant, but a restaurant with rooms, a common Welsh institution. How does this differ from, say, an inn? Well, the focus is on the restaurant’s (usually touted) gourmet fare and the rooms are generally reasonably priced. The cost is DB&B, which includes dinner, breakfast and bed. We stumbled upon Kilverts […]
Shepherds Ice Cream
This sheepsmilk ice cream was rated among the U.K.’s 50 best. If you taste it, you’ll surely agree it’s worthy of a few accolades! The goods have been made at Cwm Farm in nearby Herefordshire since 1987. The owners originally used their own milking sheep, but now source it from a sheep milker near Stratford-on-Avon. […]
The Fudge Shop
I only associate fudge shops with seaside destinations, so it was quite a pleasure to stumble upon one in little Hay-on-Wye. The Fudge Shop has been in business for over ten years. In addition to making 16 varieties on site, the shop also offers regional sweets and fine chocolates. I tried the crunchy peanut butter […]
Wales
Our first introduction to Wales was driving on terrifyingly narrow, windy (think hair-pin), hilly roads that were tightly walled in by foliage thick enough to preclude any glimpses of oncoming traffic. We crossed over a bridge so thin we had to pull our mirrors in. Every time we encountered another vehicle, we were almost forced […]
