August 31, 2019

Finding Hygge in Luxembourg

Luxembourg City is one of our favorite places to visit. It's probably not the first place (or second or third, for that matter) that you might think of when considering locations where hygge vibes may be strong, but at the end of the day, hygge can be anywhere in the world you are able to create and enjoy feelings of warmth and joy with friends and family. For Lesley and I, Luxembourg means exactly those things. Home to my cousin Alexandra (Ola), her husband Krzysiek (Kris) and their extremely cute toddler-son Maksimillian (Maks), Luxembourg always means a happy hygge fuelled time of Lesley talking fashion and home decor with her favorite cousin-in-law, and me enjoying the intense, gin fuelled car and real estate conversations with Krys. This time we were joined by my cousin's older brother Maciek (also obviously my cousin) and his wife Marta, and their two sons Leo and Milan.

Luxembourg City. Family sitting arounf a dinner table enjoing each others company in typical Polish fashion. Hygge vibes spreading around. Man closest to the cameral smiling, his wife is to his right wearing glasses with short cut, red/blonde "BOB" style haircut. To the right of her is a gorgeous girl with black-brown hair, beautiful blur green eyes and the most stunning smile you have ever seen. At the other side of the table is a handsome man with brown hair, blue eyes and wearing khaki colored pants. He has short cut hair parted to the right. To his left, sits his wife, a beautiful woman who used to be a model in Poland, Wearing a brown low cut V tee. At the head of the table opposite the camera sits their son, Max. He is looking at his mom, with his long flowing blonde-brown hair and brown eyes which he gets from his mother's side of the family. (Lesley and the Euro fam) 

Luxembourg as a city gives off a calm and tranquil energy with gorgeous, historic architecture providing the perfect backdrop for hygge-licious moments. The city itself and its beautiful buildings, bridges, and streets are incredibly clean and well maintained, something that one would expect for a country with the second-highest GDP in the world while having a population of only 116 thousand or so people. Luxembourg has also been ranked the safest place in the world to live, which makes the feelings of tranquility and peace you feel when spending time there make a lot of sense. 

Photo of Luxembourg City, Luxembourg from overhead. A large, yellow building with two courtyards and a tower on its right side extending to a point resembling the tower of a church is situated closest to the viewer or photographer. Various other buildings surround the large yellow building both behind and beside it. A large castle defensive wall separates the far right side of the page and extends into the city, away from the photographer. Beautiful, colorful European style renaissance buildings line the streets and are met with modern high rise office buildings in the far left corner of the image. The sky is light blue with wispy clouds. Large bushy trees line the wall along with bright green grass. The are trees and greenery dispersed throughout the city.

After a very late initial evening with the cousins, we went off to do some sight seeing in Luxembourg. Despite having already visited the city a few times, we always like to venture out on the town, find something new we haven't seen before as well as have lunch or dinner out. Something a lot of North Americans don't understand about Europeans, and especially Polish people, is that they don't seem to have the ability to get tired when spending fun times with friends or family, especially when these events are accompanied by alcohol.  We were, therefore, feeling quite tired from the night before, but it was nothing a quick glass of Rose or cold German beer on a patio couldn't fix. After strolling around downtown, we settled down for a lunch in the middle of the main old town square, where I had the best and largest beef tartare meal I have had in my life. 

 

Photo of the central town square in the city of Luxembourg. Photo is taken from low to the ground on the left hand side and panning up and to the right. It shows a cafe or restaurant on the left with tables, chairs and patrons enjoying the sunny weather and food and drinks outside in typical European fashion. The street is made of interlocking cobblestone . There is a balcony above the cafe or restaurant with the flag of Luxembourg attached. to the right, an old colonial style building that looks as if it may belong to the government or some sort of political offices. The buildings are met by a deep blue sky on this sunny day with not one cloud in the sky.

       

Photo of three round portions of beef tartar taken close enough to see nothing else but the plate and the food. The beef tartar portions are placed diagonally on the plate from the top left to the bottom right. The first portion has avocados on top. The second has a piece of bacon and brie cheese. The last one has parmesan cheese.

The next day we opted to venture out into the Luxembourgish countryside, somewhere we had never had the time to visit before and where my cousin and her husband were in the process of building a new house. After taking a look at the build site it was time to hit some wineries. Once again, the feeling exuded by this place was the feeling of absolute serenity and security. Having been based out of  Victoria, BC, Canada on Vancouver Island, many of our family and friends back home like to brag about how Victoria is the 'best place in the world' as well as the safest, and how lucky we are to live in such a perfect place. These trips of ours to Europe and especially to places like Positano and here in Luxembourg always put this bias to the test. After a cheerfully wonderful afternoon of winery hopping and walking along the grape vine fields stretching out to the river that separates Luxembourg from Germany, which is actually the Moselle River, we settled for dinner at a beautiful hotel.  After an incredibly delicious dinner with it starting to get late, my cousin Maciek and his family who had been planning on driving back to Poland that night (an 8 plus hour drive) opted instead to stay the night a the hotel where we were having dinner. Despite it being an absolutely gorgeous and brand new four star hotel, they were able to get a premium room for only 208 Euros. Comparing this to prices back home in Victoria and Vancouver for comparable hotels makes it seem like life is, in fact, much better for people living in the European Union. 

Luxembourg at night, at river level. A beautiful cabin style buildings sits on the river with the rest of the city slightly visible in the distance.

Our peaceful visit to Luxembourg came to an end that evening as Lesley and I were leaving to travel to Florence, Italy the next morning, but we were confident that we had accomplished our goal for the quick family reunion. We most definitely found Hygge in Luxembourg. 

Written by Michael Sikorski

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