Luxembourg or Brussels (and why Luxembourg)?

Are you one of those job seekers out there in a dilemma: Luxembourg or Brussels?
Well, don't feel lonely, even THIS Manneken-Pis is experiencing the same... On Thursday 23 June 2011 from 9 am to 4 pm this little bloke will wear a new costume: the traditional one of Luxembourg! Maybe he's planning to move on... (there are some gossips that his new groove is connected with the celebration of the Luxemburgish National Day but it's only to mislead Belgians about his real plans ;) ).

Guess which one is the Luxemburgish outfit? (the reply is at the end of the post)

1.

2.

3.

Photo source: Wikipedia - Pbrundel (1), The city of Brussels website (2), Ultra-Gross (3)

Here are some aspects to consider before you choose Luxembourg or Brussels (based on the observations of ArboGuru).

So, LUXEMBOURG is made for you if ...

* you fancy a uniquely pronounced French-German-Switzerdütch-sounding language called Luxembourgish (or at least speak French or/and German; there are many expats of more than 100 nationalities so you can use English - local lingua franca especially at work);
* you'd like living in a country where you can easily take the wrong exit on the highway and end up in a different country by chance (France, Belgium, Germany...);
* you prefer absolute calm and silence even on a Saturday night (not exactly);
* you enjoy absolute security for your family and spotlessly (not exactely) clean streets;
* you enjoy checking out the latest cabriolets, 4x4s, luxury cars and sports wagons (!);
* you want to partice some Portuguese with the locals (and Brasilian and Cape Verde expats as well - hello friends!);
* you prefer having ten times more banks than food and grocery shops (hard to believe but consummerism doesn't rule here - look, there are only few shopping centres and everything's closed on Sundays afternoons);
* you like high real estate and apartment rental prices (true but is it likeable?!; by the way note that minimal salary in Luxembourg is 1725 euros compared to 1388 euros in Belgium and 1169 euros in Great Britain - data from July 2010);
* you love having nature and green all around you (green and black - absolutely lovely tame blackbirds in the parks!);
* you love seeing your colleagues in the supermarket, gym and city centre even after leaving the office (hmm... strange but if you really want to meet someone "by chance" it will probably not happen);

How about BRUSSELS - the concurrent city? It has a truly international-multicultural environment (more cosmopolitan than in Luxembourg) and one of the largest selection of beers in the world (in Lux the small amount of breweries is recompensed by many excellent wines!). It's the capital of the country that is the record holder for lack of government. There are regions where speaking French/Flemish is to be strictly avoided, or else you are a persona non grata (caution!). Be prepared that you'll pay there the EU's highest taxes (if your spouse works in the local job market), but you will never be bored - you can occasionally watch protesters from all over the world in the EU district and you can get to know in Brussels how it is to fix an appointment with a plumber/repairman/fixer who never shows up...

Conclusion? In Luxembourg you can have your cake and eat your cake (yes!) because it's "only" 170 km from Brussels and ONLY 23 km from the closest town in Belgium - Arlon (where by the way the nearest Ikea shop is). The choice is yours!

Reply for the photo puzzle: 2.

Venice and Paris in Luxembourg

Yes! Unfortunately Venice was deconstructed and is no longer there (!), but Paris is still present - there is a place called "Place de Paris" in the center of the Luxembourg-City (nearby the bus stop Paris-Zitha). Maybe it's the way to thank for the Luxembourg Garden and the Luxembourg Palace in Paris ;) By the way - did you know that Paris is only 2 hours from Luxembourg by TGV train?

As for Venice, I mean Luxembourgish Venice - it existed in 2003. Within 6 months, some 300 craftsmen and labourers transformed six hectares of the industrial wasteland Terres Rouges in Esch-sur-Alzette to make it look like Venice at the end of the 16th century. It was done to shot "Secret Passage" (by Adémir Kenovic).

Esch-sur-Alzette seemed to be "good in the role" so it "played" the city of channels once again, this time in the famous "Merchant of Venice" (by Michael Radford, starring Joseph Fiennes, Jeremy Irons and Al Pacino; based on Shakespeare's play of the same name). Have a look at the sets of "Venice" in Esch (like it?):

source of the photo above: http://www.eu2005.lu (other pictures are mine)

On your guard in Lux

The Grand Ducal Palace in Luxembourg City is the official residence of the Grand Duke of Luxembourg, the head of state. Soldiers of the military of Luxembourg have been performing guard duties since 1966 with frequently only one guard visible at the palace. The representative of them I met once was a perfect example of "life in slow motion"
(for impatient spectators: guard's walk time 1:00 -> 1:33).

It happened that he was offered some help... The enthusiast volunteers tried their best but apparently it's not just a piece of cake to be a perfect Duke's guard!

You can play the movie by clicking on the picture. Credit: bober88

The Luxembourgish guard stayed cool but one day he might take the revenge the same way as his hardcore colleague at Buckingham Palace...

Once upon a time in Luxembourg

Behind forests, mountains and lakes there is a city where its crazy statues become temporarily alive, most of them at night (there are some practical reasons for that as you'll see)...

They leave their cages...

...observe everything carefully and spread gossips with the speed of light...

The most noble of them Gëlle Fra plays serso with her laurel wreath...

Others, symetry freaks, arrange French style gardens everywhere possible (be conscious that one day you can find a little piece of Versailles in front of your house)...

It's them who grow popcorn on shrubs called snowberries and distribute its fruits in the Luxembourgish cinemas...

...and once, in January 2011, the statues made Hamelius bus stop bursting with green leaves in the middle of winter, just for fun...

In the morning there are only few traces and subtle signs of their secret activity left in the city... like the statues' orientation point near the airport...

...some cigars petrified in their mouths...

...confusing sticker art...

...or even Snoopy and Woodstock glued to the somebody's mailbox...

Just be attentive! :) The evil is in details...

Stereotypes

I'd like to share with you some amazing videos about Luxembourg.

Is it true what they say about Luxembourg? People live on trees, color TV is expected by 2025 and fun is illeggal? Check here...



And how about luxembourgish wine? It's made for people with peculiar taste, also used as fuel for spaceships and gives you a funny feeling ;) ? You can verify here:



Credits: station.lu

Shining like a Michelin's star

Since 2007 Belgium and Luxembourg have had their own Michelin Guide. It was a natural consequence of Belux high status in matters of fine dining. Did you know that Luxembourg is the country that currently has the highest amount of Michelin restaurant stars per square kilometer (and per head of inhabitant as well)?

Luxembourg (as a country) has one two-star restaurant ("Mosconi" in Luxembourg-city) and 12 one-star restaurants in the capital and smaller towns (lets enumerate those from the capital: Clairefontaine, Le Bouquet Garni, Le Sud and Patin d'Or). It's worth underlining that "Mosconi" is the only Italian restaurant outside Italy to hold 2 Michelin stars and has something unique in the world: the 8-course “pasta” menu... Lunch menu is for 44 euros (with wine), evening one for 110 euros (with wine).

Want to have a look at Mosconi? (the photos 1 and 2 are from the Mosconi's website and nr 3 of its surroundings is mine).

Michelin has awarded its "Bib Gourmand" rating (which highlights restaurants offering "good food at moderate prices") to 8 other restaurants in Luxembourg (among them: Bottega Mi&Ti, Caves Gourmandes and Kamakura in Luxembourg-city). Price range for those Bibs: 25-145 euros.

As for everyday food most visible influences in Luxembourg canteens, supermarkets and restos are French (Alsacian) and Belgian. Some luxembourgish specialties are:
* "tarte fromage luxemburgois" (cheese cake),

 (photo by Neuceu)
* "petits bonhommes" (kind of sweet small bread) especially in the winter,

( photo by Cornischong )
* cakes "sablés" with luxembourgish Luxlait rose butter,
* plum "tarte" in the summer,
* local bio honey, herbal teas, beers and wines.

You can find a wide variety of green salads, milk products (cheeses and milk drinks), seafood, fishes, hums, "pâtés" (spreadable meat or vegetarian pastes), creamy soups (the one of green been has a status of a local specialty)... "Raclette" and "fondue" as well as lovely "tartines" are popular for evenings with friends. In the shops are many ready-made salads, sandwiches, pizzas and pastas that are popular among those busy and/or lazy workaholics. Bio food seems to be very trendy and there are many, many options for vegetarians.

Why talking about food? One of St Valentine's ideas is to go to the restaurant and enjoy special menu.
Here's an example of love menu, proposed by the restaurant "Le Bouquet garni":

The aphrodisiacs included in this delicious proposal are: truffles, seafood (langoustines, scallops) and chocolate.

By the way don't you find "cappuccino de pomme de terre a la truffe" (creamy potato cappucino with truffles) interesting? Mhmmm... If sb would like to try to do it on their own, here's the recipe.

Bon appétit for food and for love!

3 strangest window displays

This is how luxurious Luxair Travels and Tours ("we are known as All travel Luxury in one bag ") is tempting its clients with Wellington boots and plastic snow slider...



And this is a surprising window display of one of the luxembourgish hairdressing salons (your hair will grow like a weed, sorry, like a tree ?):



And here's another one hairdresser studio in Eich that displays in the window the protest of his owner against long-term construction works in the neighberhood that have destroyed the building where the studio is. What is more interesting the display changes and seems to be the hairdresser's frustration blog.

In November 2010 he wrote "This building has been destroyed for 3 years by the neighbour's one extension and they do not want to take responsibility for their actions" :

[Please note that this archival photo and only this one is taken from the salon's website.]

In February 2011 the same but newly arranged display reminds of the forth anniversary of constant inconveniences...

Richard Allan from Facebook about safety

Today in Luxembourg the question "No privacy online anymore?" was in the air. In the evening before European Data Protection Day Mr Richard Allan, director of Policy EU of Facebook arrived to the special conference to the capital. As Facebook is a social phenomenon and even the "hero" of the film ("The social network"), Allan was hosted here like a star in the glare of publicity. Of course he was surrounded by excited luxembourgish cameramen and of course the audience bombarded him with detailed questions.

After listening to him for 2 hours I can say that he's a nice guy with a strong sense of humour. Here's one of the introductory slides of his presentation:

It's reference to the adage "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog" from the cartoon by Peter Steiner published by The New Yorker on July 5, 1993 (by the way the most reproduced cartoon from this journal ever). Even though Facebook's creator, Mark Zuckerberg, anounced some time ago that "the age of privacy is over", his colleague Richard Allan believes in selective privacy.

He talked about the personal management of different privacy levels for Facebook accounts, about options "Deactivate (hibernation), Delete, Memorise (for the families of facebook users who have gone)" and subject acces reaquests as well as cooperation of Facebook and DeleteMe.

The discussion had hot moments ;) (hmm, did I hear it right?)

Everything was nice till the moment when Allan got werbally attacked by one of the guys from the audience that reproached him for talking about preventing hacking instead of preparing the strategy of solving possible (sorry, "sure" according to him) large-scale attack. People are so serious about fb - imagine that this inquirer was afraid of his social security number kept in his profile :) Well, you don't have to be security expert to know that it's not a good place to stock this kind of data...

To give you some practical guidelines I will use this photo from the booklet for young luxembourgish internet surfers (by Bee-secure) that is aimed to warn them from revealing too much on Facebook. The authors suggest that beeing to honest "is not supposed to help youngsters at school or when looking for summer job"...

(Explanation for English-speaking lecturers: Sandra de Stroy 666 from Bertrange hates everything, especially one of the holidays.)

To finish with, you can take a security quizz if you want to (be more secure)...

Magic pills...

In MUDAM gallery in Luxembourg they have pills for everything ;)

The pills maker Dana Wyse has also special cloning kit...

To complement treatment Nedko Solakov proposes  "A Little Thing For Preventing From Premature Luck" - see explication:

It looks like that:

If you don't find it interesting, just take it ;)  :

Psychodelic rabbits and duck madly in love...

...or 19 Exposition international du petit-betail a Luxembourg-Limpertsberg (19th Small Farming International Expo in Luxembourg), 15-16 January 2011.

I've discovered it by chance during Saturday walk and recorded some interesting animals for you. Enjoy!

Here's the strangest hen ever that looks like poodle:

Here's the "love story" I spied during the Expo - bird in love without mutuality of feelings... Poor one. Seems that it happens to the animals as well.

And finally let me present you the rabbit Eyore-like, a psychodelic one...