Posted by Will on March 12th, 2010 in culture, europe, expat, luxembourg and news
Anita and I stress the number of non-residents commuting into Luxembourg just about every time we talk about life in Luxembourg. To us, it seems to touch nearly every part of life here. Add to that the number of non-native residents, and you have part of what makes Luxembourg City a special place.
We’re often unclear on the numbers, particularly with respect to non-native residents. You can imagine my delight, then, when I found the following article, “Luxembourg: A City of 156 nationalities,” in 352 Luxembourg Magazine, the leading English-language weekly in Luxembourg. Continue reading “Luxembourg by the numbers: From news352.lu”
Posted by Anita on March 5th, 2010 in culture and luxembourg
I had to run an errand today at the Notary. As I was leaving the building, I found myself behaving like a student at the Midvale School for the Gifted. As I walked back to the office, it occurred to me the reason that I might have failed so spectacularly at opening a door was that the fire code in the US has building exits opening to the outside, never to the inside.
So I challenge you, Bugle Nation, to pay attention to building exits over the next few days. See if my defense of self holds true: It’s not that I’m slow, it is that I have been culturally trained to push a door open when exiting.
Posted by Will on March 1st, 2010 in europe, france and luxembourg
In Luxembourg-Ville this morning, the air is filled with the sound of chainsaws as crews clean up debris from yesterday’s storm.
We spent all day Sunday marveling at the fierce, steady winds and violent gusts that battered our apartment. We didn’t know if it was just an ordinary spring storm, experienced from a fourth-floor apartment, or something else. Since we didn’t venture out, the worst we saw were up-ended satellite dishes, some flying tree branches, and a few trashcans blown over. From our perspective, it was as threatening as a bad summertime storm in Chicago, without the lashing rain or thunder, but also with damaging winds for a much longer period.
We woke up this morning to a news report on Radio ARA that named the storm “Xynthia” and listed dozens of closed roads all over Luxembourg. Continue reading “Breaking News: Xynthia in Luxembourg”
Posted by Will on February 27th, 2010 in entertainment, europe, france, luxembourg and travel
We were honored by a visit from Flat Stanley. Our friend Grace sent Flat Stanley to us, and we took a little tour around the Luxembourg region last weekend. We spent Saturday border-crossing among four countries!
You might enjoy the results of our tour — we have a booklet that you can see in one of three forms: Continue reading “Flat Stanley comes for a visit”
Posted by Will on February 24th, 2010 in administrative
The usually-reliable Bugle Content-Generating Computing Unit 3000 collapsed Monday morning. We apologize for the absence of exciting and entertaining news from Luxembourg while the staff bring it back up to full capacity.
In the meantime, perhaps you could entertain yourself with a long-dormant contest: Captions! (Hint, hint.)
Thank you, dear readers, for your patience.
Posted by Will on February 16th, 2010 in culture, entertainment and luxembourg
For the season before Lent, Luxembourg doesn’t have some of the charming and/or citrusy traditions of its neighbors. It does have a carnival procession and party in a small city, Diekirch, known as the Cavalcade.
We’d like to share some of our photos and a few observations. Continue reading “Happy Carnival!”
Posted by Anita on February 12th, 2010 in luxembourg and news
First up: The Bakker household now 
has expert advice to support its plan to stay home and stay semi-prone this weekend:
TRAFFIC WARNING
Drivers are being urged to avoid travelling this week-end if at all possible. The start of the half-term holidays means heavy traffic as families head off for winter-sports breaks. The ACL says people should leave on Friday morning if they can or wait for Sunday. The combination of heavy traffic and difficult driving conditions, could make for extremely long journeys, especially for those headed for the Alps.
Continue reading “Luxembourg News: 12 Feb 2010″
Posted by Anita on February 8th, 2010 in consumer and entertainment
It wasn’t easy – but we’ve finally put our world together. It took two more marathon sessions, but we finished our puzzleball globe. When you last checked in, we had completed Antarctica and the surrounding waters, and we’d managed to hook up with South America.
Next, Will managed to connect Australia and some of south east Asia to the main section.
Continue reading “She’s got the whole world in her hands”
Posted by Anita on February 5th, 2010 in luxembourg and news
It’s time for another survey of the week’s news in Luxembourg. As usual, we owe the good folks at ARA City Radio in Luxembourg for the news reports, which we hear in the dulcet voice of Mark Weedon almost every morning during Phoebe Winter’s breakfast show.
Filed under “Overkill”
HELICOPTER NAILS SHOPLIFTER
The police helicopter was in action in Ingeldorf on Saturday afternoon. It was hunting down a man who’d stolen a shell suit from a local shop. He had run off after staff noticed him trying to smuggle the stolen gear out of the shop in a black bag. He was eventually tracked down hiding behind a hedge in a barnyard, and is facing charges of shoplifting.
The follow-up story, filed under “CYA”
WE WILL NEVER KNOW
The Police say their helicopter was not called to track down a man who stole a shell suit in Ingeldorf at the week-end. Continue reading “Luxembourg News: 5 Feb 2010″
Posted by Will on February 2nd, 2010 in luxembourg
For Americans, today may be Groundhog Day. Here in Luxembourg, it’s Liichtmëssdag!
Here’s the best description we can find, courtesy ARA City Radio here in Luxembourg and prepared by the ever-entertaining and informative Mark Weedon:
It’s the feast of St Blaise today or Candelmas. There’s a local tradition that children go out with lanterns this evening and sing songs on doorsteps. The point is that they are wishing you good health for the rest of the year and you are supposed to reciprocate with sweets or money. Modern children are likely to be rather disappointed if you hand out bacon and peas, which is actually what their asking for in the song.
I remember celebrating the Feast of St Blaise in my Catholic grammar school: Continue reading “LuxAlert: Liichtmëssdag”
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