LUXEMBOURG LAYOVER May 24-25, 2011

LUXEMBOURG LAYOVER
May 24-25, 2011

Our room is quite spacious at the Gastzimmer Masseria and having the little kitchenette is an added bonus. After a bit of discussion we decided to slay over for an extra day

We met a very nice guy who is also staying at the gastzimmer, Sanjay is a PHD who is working on a big safety review of the nuclear energy plant nearby. Sanjay is from Sri Lanka, but he has adopted Germany as his country now. He got his degree here, and met his wife, a mechanical engineer, here. He is a very engaging fellow, open and friendly, and we really enjoy talking to him.

Sanjay was going to the power plant to work, and he offered to give us a ride to Luxembourg, so we decided to go over the border and spend a day. The last time we were there it was -8 degrees Celsius, and we just froze walking along the old battlements. This was back in the 1980s when we flew over on the inaugural flight of People’s Express.

So, we arrived in Luxembourg and walked into the heart of town. There we saw the hop on hop off bus, so we decided to get a pass on that and we rode around the town looking at the sights and learning about the country.

Luxembourg is a very international city. As we walked along the streets we heard 15 different languages spoken. The locals are usually fluent in German, French and Luxembourgish and change back and forth with ease throughout their conversations.

The city has built itself into a huge international financial hub and there are lots of big business offices and modern buildings where the business of the world is conducted. This is also the seat of the World Court.

We stopped in the big market square for a nice lunch. I had salmon salad and Don had a 3 course meal, with a beer included, for only 8e40.

After lunch we walked down into the deep canyon that runs through the middle of town. I think the Vallee de la Petrusse was cut by a river, but now there is just a small stream running through it. There are nice pathways and gardens to walk through, and it was very pleasant, but I was not looking forward to hiking all of the stairs up again.

When we got to the point we were ready to go back up to street level, we noticed some people going into a big opening in the basement of a building. Some kids on bikes whizzed past us and into the maw as well, so Don speculated that maybe there was an elevator in there somewhere. We tentatively entered the black mouth and sure enough! There is an elevator in there that took us right up to the city again. What a find!

We walked around town some more, taking some pictures and soaking in the hustle and bustle of the city. As 4 o’clock rolled around we found the inner city bus ramada and located our bus with no problem. We took the bus back to Perl and were dropped right off across the street from the gas Zimmer. We walked over to the market and picked up some ribs and fries to cook for dinner and then returned to our lodging.

Our host, JJ, speaks pretty good English, and also French, so we can communicate pretty well. He is a slim fellow, with a long grey goatee that curls dramatically up at the end, and a chin-length page boy hairdo, also gray, kind of an aging hippie with a strong capitalistic bent. The one conversation I had with him taught me that he is a yes-butter. Any suggestion or idea I had he gave me the old yes-but response. I got tired of play the game pretty fast and gave up conversing with him. Don got the rest of the fun. His wife, Rosa, is a beautiful Italian woman, but seems to be a bit shy and didn‘t interact with me at all.

Upon our return I went upstairs to work on dinner and Don was getting something from the bike trailers. JJ approached Don, voicing some criticism because we had used the kitchen to prepare breakfast and coffee.
Apparently the kitchen was offered to us to smoke in and have a drink, but not for cooking. But, we didn’t understand that. He complained that we had food in the refrigerator and on the countertops and had used the dishes and clogged the drain. Well, I did not clog the drain, but I was guilty of the rest. So, JJ wanted us to pay an extra 35e a night. Don demurred, saying that this was not the deal and a discussion ensued in which JJ brought up our rental rates in Mount Hermon as a comparison with his rental rates. Well, of course there is no comparison between Treetops and the gastzimmer, but Don had a difficult time explaining that. JJ kept asking for specifics, and it is hard to explain that everything at TT is top of the line, first class and meets a much higher standard. Don didn’t want to be critical of the facility, but still tried to get across the differences. Things escalated and Don finally came up to our room, rather agitated.

In the meanwhile I was trying to cook dinner and had discovered that there were no pots and pans to cook with. So I was improvising, cooking the ribs on a plate in the microwave and trying to use the aluminum container they came in to cook the fries on the stovetop. Needless to say, I was also a bit frustrated, and the kitchen was filled with smoke from the fries.

So we had our dinner and after dinner JJ invited Don down to his tent to have a beer, a kind of peace offering, we think. And we went to bed back on good terms.

Don had a restless night and was up at the crack of dawn, scrubbing the kitchen and getting everything spit spot.

So, our review of the gastzimmer Masseria in Perl is that the location is good, the rooms are spacious, the décor is funky culture, the price is high and the breakfast cost is very high. Don’t hope for any concessions or freebees here. Anything you ask for will have an added charge.
Skip this place the prices are out line, double what we paid in France and Germany for rest of our trip.