Lunch and Dinner

The Grund, with the modern buildings of Kirchberg in the distance.

After we visited the cemeteries, we returned to the city for a walking tour, which was not necessary for me but may have benefited Chris. Because the cemetery tours had gone long, the walking tour was abbreviated and some of it was covered by bus on the way to the drop off site. All I could think about was lunch and the amount of money laundering that must go on in Luxembourg's 130 different banks. (For reference, the population of the country is about 600,000, meaning there is a different bank for every 4600 people.) While Deutsche Bank in Germany keeps getting in trouble for money laundering (particularly for Russians), Lux gets a free pass from scrutiny. I just can't imagine 130 banks in a 999 square kilometer country being clean. But that's just me speculating.

The symphony hall, on of many modern buildings on Kirchberg

Kirchberg, a neighborhood in Lux City, is a monument to these banks. It's also home to the EU, which exists to intertwine Europe's economic policy to the point where it becomes impossible for a European country to ever fight another European country. It has worked. Europe has sustained its longest peace since, well, maybe ever. That's why Putin wants to rip the EU apart. Sowing discord in Europe makes him and his cronies stronger. They are spreading anti-EU propaganda across Europe, and like similar propaganda in America, it's working. They use the same tactics - blame immigrants, Muslims, and minorities; denounce leftwing opponents as "socialists;" and appeal to "traditional" "Christian" "values" that seek to put gays back in the closet, women back into the kitchen, and religious nonsense back into education.

Anyway...our walking tour briefly took us back to the Middle Ages, when people believed in witches and dragons and you died if you got a scratch or a cold. I snapped a few photos and marveled at how 21 years ago, I had to be discerning in what I photographed because my roll of $10 film only held 24 photos. At this point, I probably had 2400 photos on my card and could take at least double that. Here are some:

Just a building from 1687

We ate lunch outside at a Cuban restaurant that had a good special on the advice of another Miami alum sitting there. We did not want to pay $20 for lunch elsewhere, nor did we want to wander much longer. I had forgotten how expensive Luxembourg is! As we sat there, dozens of other Miami alumni passed by. We had invaded Luxembourg.

MUDEC

Our next event was in the evening - a traditional Luxembourgish dinner at the chateau in Differdange. It was the only time during the week that we'd get to visit the school. I say traditional because the food was traditional, but it was several courses long and cooked by a famous chef from Lux. We had a champagne - er, cremant - reception that was far too rushed. Brad and I were glad to see Dr. Mason, my favorite professor who was instrumental in starting MUDEC all those years ago. I was happy when his face lit up upon seeing me. I don't think he remembered Brad, though, despite us both being fairly inseparable during our 6 week 1999 Transatlantic Seminar with him. But he is in his eighties, Brad. LOL

The dinner was wonderful but also rushed. Some weird guy no one knew got up at one point and tried to get everyone to sing the fight song that we had either forgotten or never knew. He seemed drunk but was weird for everything else in the week so maybe that's just the way he is. I enjoyed talking with the people at our table and think it'd be nice if we saw them again sometime.

We went for a nightcap in the city before returning to our hotel. We had to get up early for a winery tour in the morning.

It occurred to me just now that Luxembourg is a lot like DC, where a lot of people from other states commute to work there. I feel like France is Virginia and Germany is Maryland. Belgium is West Virginia because it's a hike but some people do it anyway.