Friday 8th September 2023 - Rumelange, Luxembourg

 

We realised that Luxembourg City was only 40 minutes away by bus, so we decided to stay another night in Rumelange and travel to there today. It seemed rather weird to be on a bus where nobody paid and there was no contact at all with the driver. The service was very efficient and the terminus was just a few minutes’ walk from the centre. The city centre is very small but is on two levels – we were on the higher level and, given that it was still very hot, we decided to stay on that level. The tourist office provided a map with a suggested walking route with brief information about each of the sites. This was ideal and allowed us to wander gently for a few hours. The Bock was one of the highlights, a massive peninsula of rock that sticks out from the upper city and provides views over the lower city and the many defences that protected Luxembourg. The Bock was one of those defences with emplacements on the surface and also a casement – an underground system of tunnels with openings where cannons were stationed. The casement is open to the public and we spent some time getting lost in the tunnels and enjoying the views from the many openings.
We also visited the National Museum of History & Art that had a large archaeology section spread over a number of basement floors. This part of the museum had been dug out of solid rock and they had very cleverly used the rock as a background to some of the exhibits. I am a volunteer with Avalon Archaeology on the Somerset Levels where we are recreating ancient buildings such as an Iron Age round house, part of a Roman villa and an Anglo Saxon long hall. I have had the wonderful opportunity to be involved in many parts of the project and I am currently heavily involved in creating a Roman mosaic in the villa. It is therefore not surprising that the highlight of the museum visit was the Vichten Roman villa exhibit and its glorious Mosaic of the Muses. The mosaic is in excellent condition and the quality of the workmanship is superb – even better than ours!
It took us some time to visit the excellently presented archaeological section and we decided to leave the art and history floors for another day.

Photos: View of the lower city from The Bock; Looking out from one of the cannon holes in The Bock casement; A reconstruction of a Neolithic dwelling using the natural rock of the museum basement; The magnificent Vichten mosaic.