Another day, another country. Kind of crazy that I’ve been to five of them on this trip now. That probably sounds too fast to a lot of people, but it’s actually been about perfect. I bet I’d call 2 more days in each country perfect. Anyways, I spent today exploring the tiny country of Luxembourg!
Church
I found an English-speaking church in Luxembourg City called All Nations Church. Doing a little research, it was a sort-of church plant from an American pastor in the early 2000s. Sort-of because it actually began as a Bible study that then formed into a church with the pastor’s help three years later. It was good! I was glad to be in church again. The church’s name sure rings true — there were at least 5-6 different languages in the building and plenty of people of all races and nationalities. It was a really neat experience. Multinationalism is (what I believe) the Church was meant to be; it’s certainly what the early churches consisted of. What a beautiful image of God’s Kingdom being lived out in a local church. It was packed today and the pastor indicated that visitors are a regular occurrence, so I’m sure I wasn’t the only tourist in there. Glad to hear that other people seek out communal worship while they’re on vacation too.
The service itself was okay. It could’ve been a service straight out of a typical American Evangelical service, which struck me as very odd over here. I think something about being in the midst of so many elegant, massive, liturgical churches makes our normal services feel a little shallow or underwhelming. I don’t know. I’m trying to keep an open mind. I’m certain my feelings will change over the next few days and weeks, but the service I attended at Holy Trinity in Oxford rests in my memory as much more worshipful. I know that I’m bringing my own biases and assumptions into my feelings about this morning though, so I think I’ll stop there. It was engaging, lots of people attend and seem to be active, and that is a wonderful thing for the Christian Church. Everything else is secondary.
Exploration
If you didn’t know already, Luxembourg is a country! One of the smallest in the world. The population is nearly 700k and the country is only 4/5 the size of Rhode Island. It’s got a huge foreign population because it’s all around an attractive place to live in terms of nature, welfare, economics, and politics.
Given the size, the capitol city was very walkable and easy to explore. The main area to check out was the canyon running through the middle of the city. The 150ft cliffsides on both sides of the river were topped with ancient walls, some of which date back to the 900s AD. The entire riverside is now a gorgeous park with lots of playgrounds, sitting areas, forested paths, and artwork. I spent my entire afternoon down there for a reason.
Walking around cities without much in mind gives you all kinds of opportunities to run into spontaneous things! I was able to check out another cathedral — Notre Dame of Luxembourg — where they were setting up something incredibly opulent on the stage. Still have no idea what it was. However! The church bells began ringing later in the afternoon. They rang for nearly 30 minutes throughout the city, nonstop. As I was walking the streets towards the church, I noticed a marching band hanging out on a street. Seemed cool, so I went to check it out. Turns out it was the Grand Duke’s palace! There were lots of police officers out (all women for some reason), so I knew something big was happening. After 15 minutes, the Grand Duke Henri and his family came walking down the street! Crazy. I’d never heard of him before but it sure was cool to see the royal procession through the streets.
Sorry about the shakiness in the video. I was fighting the wind and rain with my other hand while I tried to record.
Lux’s History
I learned quite a bit of the history of the country, just walking around and eavesdropping on tour guides. Apparently, the Duchy (bigger than a county and smaller than a kingdom) has changed hands plenty of times over the centuries, particularly during the Middle Ages. It gained its independence in the late 1800s when France and Prussia (now Germany) couldn’t agree on who should own it, as well as the Luxembourg union with the Netherlands ending. It’s complicated. Anyways, Germany tried to annex it in WWI, but failed. Then again when the Germans invaded in WWII, they tried to officially annex the country. Still failed, obviously! Given that 75% of the population speaks German, you’d think they would be fine with that. The Nazis were fiercely opposed though, and Luxembourg resisted hard throughout the war to maintain its own identity. It’s still here because of that!
Despite having only a small role in WWII, I stumbled upon multiple memorials throughout the city to various people groups from the war. It’s totally inescapable in these countries. Everywhere you go, in every town and country, there is something to honor those that died in WWII. It’s hard to comprehend just how much it changed for everyone living here.
Another travel day
That’s it for today! Tomorrow is another travel day. 6 hours on the train again, hopefully less crowded this time. I’m sad to say that Valerie’s and my Mom’s flight from Liberal got cancelled, so they won’t be here until Tuesday morning now. 🙁 I was really looking forward to seeing them in the morning. The one good thing is that I don’t have to get up at 5am anymore, so I do appreciate that. I’m ready to see them though!