Apartment Photo Tour and some of Luxembourg City

We have a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom apartment on Rue Louis XIV. It is on the second floor of the building (as opposed to ground or first), and located in Merl, which is a quarter in the western part of Luxembourg City. Luxembourg City itself is in the southern area of the country. In 2001, Merl had a population of about 3,400 people. 

Upon arrival, we found these delicious biscuits, a bottle of rosé, orange juice, and Evian waiting for us. 

The apartment is basically straight out of an IKEA catalog. The front door is to the left, and those cabinet drawers pull forward and hold our shoes. The kitchen and living room are in the background:

The shower area and toilet area are separate rooms. The toilet area has a fan that automatically turns on if the light is on more than a minute. Smart!

Annora's room (pull out bed is behind those drawer fronts):

Our room:

This is actually two twins, with separate bedding, pushed together. I feel like Lucy and Ricky.

Kitchen and living room:

Window to outdoor balcony (the door doubles as a window, very nice), and an interesting statue below:

Light switch, door knobs, phone to buzz people in and boilers that are throughout:

We found a few fields of cows and some universities when we drove last night for food and supplies. Cute area.

We went to a shopping center called La Belle Etoile, which is owned by Cactus, Luxembourg's largest retailer and third-largest employer. The store is basically a high-end Walmart, which I think was called Hobbi and Habitat, but there were lots of retailers within. We picked up some kebab sandwiches for John and me, and some nuggets de poulet (chicken nuggets) for Boo, because we were too tired to cook or attempt a restaurant after grocery shopping. 

We got back and crashed. Boo and I both woke up in the middle of the night (6pm back home), but eventually went back to sleep. In the morning I made some eggs, and we ate some baguette. Only I ate some salami and mustard with my baguette for breakfast. Those two were really missing out. Delicious. 

This afternoon we took care of administrative stuff, like a bus pass for me and a parking sticker for the car. Unfortunately, I upgraded my phone, so it can't be jailbroken right now to use a SIM card. John called AT&T and they are going to unlock it in a few business days. No biggie, there's a decent amount of wifi everywhere.

I took a few pictures of Boo in Luxembourg City as she enjoyed a ham and cheese (mixt) baguette and explored some statues and fountains:

After we returned home to await our lost luggage, I crashed and burned. I couldn't stop myself from crawling under the covers and sleeping for an hour or so. My head was spinning and it was needed. Boo didn't sleep and sweetly kept waking me up and asking for things, to which I would mumble gibberish and tell her to ask her father. 

Once I made myself get up, it was time to venture out and get a few more supplies for our very bare kitchen. We enjoyed walking up and down all the aisles, figuring out what was what, and grabbing what we needed. I will admit that I'm a little intimidated right now with French. I took Spanish and Arabic, and can figure out many words, but speaking it is a different story. It'll come, but I'm afraid to speak up at the moment.

After groceries, it was dinner time. We wandered all through Luxembourg City again and couldn't decide where to go. Mainly because it is a tourist area and the restaurants were expensive, but also because we weren't totally sure of the etiquette and what exactly the menus said. Again, it'll come and is getting better already. 

Enter Beet, a restaurant near Hotel De Ville (City Hall) in the city's public square of some sort. The menu had some English and was simple to read. Since we were both being indecisive and it was nearing 8pm (!), I declared this the dinner spot. 

Turns out I didn't read the part where it was vegan/vegetarian. Oopsie. This didn't bother me so much, but John and Boo are a bit pickier. John was a good sport and ordered a mango burger, which had mango chutney on a patty of couscous and egg. I had an eggplant and pesto burger, and we shared some fries and sparkling water. Boo busied herself coloring:

The waitress was great, and so was the presentation, but it wasn't our cup of tea.

John's burger sucked, to be honest. He couldn't even finish it. Mine was just okay. Fries were great. One thing we are really glad about are the smaller portions. I'm sick of being a fat American, and I hope this trip will help. 

Still hungry (Boo wouldn't eat), we headed home, and I whipped up some eggs and toast and yogurt for my picky brood. Tummies full, everyone but me is now passed out and I'm going to do the same. Boo keeps asking to see a castle so I've decided that's happening after breakfast. Tomorrow afternoon, Karine, our wonderful concierge, is going to take us on a driving tour to point out places of interest.