Bakker Bugle Blog Say it three times fast. In Luxembourgish.

18 March 2010

Sneak Peek: Comparative Timeline

Filed under: administrative,culture,europe,ireland,luxembourg,usa — Will @ 19:26

The Bugle staff have been working on an exciting new project that will give you a new way of looking at the world.

Our guests in Ireland would sometimes visit, in the same day or two, three important Irish sites: Kilmainham Gaol (1796-1923 CE), Newgrange at Brú na Bóinne (3500-3200 BCE), and the Guinness Storehouse (2000-present).

Even the most historically aware tourists had trouble grasping the time periods involved: what was going on other places, how long monuments were originally used, and how long it took civilizations to change. (more…)

12 March 2010

Luxembourg by the numbers: From news352.lu

Filed under: culture,europe,expat,luxembourg,news — Will @ 12:45

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. (more…)

5 March 2010

Remain calm and exit the building

Filed under: culture,luxembourg — Anita @ 11:00

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.

1 March 2010

Breaking News: Xynthia in Luxembourg

Filed under: europe,france,luxembourg — Will @ 11:00

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. (more…)

27 February 2010

Flat Stanley comes for a visit

Filed under: entertainment,europe,france,luxembourg,travel — Will @ 17:33

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!
Schengen France
You might enjoy the results of our tour — we have a booklet that you can see in one of three forms: (more…)

16 February 2010

Happy Carnival!

Filed under: culture,entertainment,luxembourg — Will @ 20:17

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. (more…)

12 February 2010

Luxembourg News: 12 Feb 2010

Filed under: luxembourg,news — Anita @ 13:07

First up: The Bakker household now BelgiumTraffichas 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.

(more…)

5 February 2010

Luxembourg News: 5 Feb 2010

Filed under: luxembourg,news — Anita @ 12:39

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. (more…)

2 February 2010

LuxAlert: Liichtmëssdag

Filed under: luxembourg — Will @ 6:59

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: (more…)

7 January 2010

My husband gave me the world for Christmas (twice)

Filed under: consumer,entertainment,ireland,luxembourg,usa — Anita @ 10:55

Two years ago, one of my Christmas presents from Will was a globe. After spending more than a decade with me, he knew better than to actually buy the globe. (I tend to be a bit fussy.) Instead, he gave me an awesome paper globe he hand-constructed to stand in for my real globe. In the next month, I was to shop in Ireland to find the perfect globe.

As it often happens with these things, the actual purchase of the globe was constantly delayed. The globe store had limited hours; I didn’t like the colors that I saw; and so on. Globes are expensive so I wanted my globe to be perfect.

Christmas 2009 arrived and I had not yet gotten around to buying a globe. Will was fed up with my antics and decided to take matters into his own hands. He reached into the interweb and, once again, found something to hold me until I find that perfect globe.

So I am now the proud owner of a Ravensburger Puzzleball. (more…)

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