Bakker Bugle Blog

We stumbled into a weekend full of events here in Luxembourg. We missed plenty of them, like the duck race, concerts, and anything after our bedtime (about 9 pm). The ones we did attend did not disappoint.

Saturday morning, we made our usual trip to the market in Place Guillaume (known locally as Knuedler). It’s getting more crowded every week, and we’re as lazy as ever about driving to it. (We could easily cycle there, but with our purchases, and I’m a bit groggy, and well, you know.) That means that we had to park in the more distant garage — about five more minutes walk — but we also walked along the Corniche, with its spectacular view.

Earlier in the week, Anita noticed that the Cercle would have its grand re-opening on Saturday. We’d heard a lot about how beautiful the building was, inside and out. But for our time in Luxembourg, it’s looked, at best, like this:

So we had to go. There was a line of rather mature visitors waiting for it to open. We were easily the youngest of the first 50 visitors. Kids these days — they just don’t know what’s good!

The Cercle Municipal was built in the first decade of the 20th Century as the city’s administration building; it was intended to be a grand piece of public architecture. Now, it’s a conference center. And a splendid conference center it is — if your taste runs to regal ballrooms. This is a side chamber named Salon Bleu:

The Salle des Dames (Ladies’ Room) is below. A pseudo-translation of the promotional webpage: The Ladies’ Room guarantees a more intimate atmosphere and complete tranquility during your reception or meeting. Elegant and charming, this room can accommodate up to 20 people.

Every inch of the place was finished with luxurious details. Anita really liked these square floral arrangements:

Hard to imagine attending a professional conference here, but it would be suitable for an intimate royal wedding reception. There is no lack of suitable candidates right now!

Back out in the sunny Place d’Armes, we noticed a heightened level of tourist activity. Their technology is progressing — this group had the earbud broadcast system, which was once seldom seen outside big attractions.

…and apparently, there was to be a dance party in the near future. Probably after our bedtime.

It wasn’t five minutes before we noticed a disturbance at the end of the street. A protest march was leaving the Gëlle Fra, decked out in hunter’s orange.

Anita physically restrained my curiosity and we went back to the Market instead.

It’s time for summer plantings, so we bought as many flowers as we could carry. I was distracted by the roar of the protest nearby. Just my luck, the orange-garbed marchers had assembled in Place Clairefontaine, on our way back to the parking garage!

I deduced that they were hunters. One of the signs said, “No hunting = no biodiversity.” Aside from that, I was at a loss. The speech was in Luxembourgish, and I’m not able to comprehend full sentences yet.

I found their website, but no news reports in English or French. Nevertheless, we could appreciate their snazzy safety vests and hats.

I must say that I found it unseemly that they wore orange on Queen’s Day, despite showing no outward appreciation for things Dutch.

One last photo from the city center — the tourist train has a new paint job. (It may even be a new tourist train. The Bugle PSI (Photographed Scene Investigation) Unit has a huge backlog, so we’ll have to wait for the verdict.)

No Saturday passes without a few chores around the house. This one was a bit unusual. Will put his Boy Scout training to good use to devise a way of keeping our current houseguest safe. Naturally, the guest herself helped with the project.

This IKEA hack keeps Daryl from chasing ducks in our “backyard”, i.e. the park — without cutting off our beloved spring breezes.

That’s it for this update, and we’re barely past noon! Don’t worry, it won’t take two weeks for me to post Part Two. I swear!

Correction: My lovely spouse informs me that the ever-reliable ARA City Radio did report on the hunters’ protest, and that she, in fact, did send me a link on Monday. She also wants our readers to know that I never read her emails. The upshot is that the hunters claim to be “victims of a witchhunt” and wish to preserve their right to access private landowners’ property.