Destination: LUXEMBOURG | |||||||||||||||||||
Things To Know Luxembourg Landscapes Exploring the Country Luxembourg: the Great Survivor |
Luxembourg Landscapes
Luxembourg is a Grand Duchy, the only one in the world, with the city of Luxembourg as its main focus, although its rural
areas are remarkably varied for such a small country. They include part of the delightful Ardennes region, the hilly area
that lies across the northern third of Luxembourg and extends into Belgium. The Ardennes have a distinctive landscape of forested
plateaus sliced through by deep valleys that are drained by beautiful rivers. Fairy-tale castles crown wooded bluffs. At Vianden
a medieval castle, one of the Grand Duchy's finest historic sites, dominates the landscape. The equally magnificent Bourscheid
Castle stands above the Sûre and Wark rivers. At Clervaux, the castle is matched by the red-roofed Benedictine Clervaux Abbey,
which stands amid the wooded heights above the beautiful town.
At the southern edge of the Ardennes, where the hills meet the flatter, more fertile land known as Le Bon Pays, or “The Good
Land,” lies the picturesque town of Diekirch. Only a short distance southwest is Ettelbrück, where there is a monument to
Gen. George Patton and a Patton Museum commemorating World War II's bitter Battle of the Bulge.
Southern Luxembourg is the country's economic powerhouse. Here in the “Good Land” are farms and orchards, forests and even more castles. In fact, the lovely valley of the Eisch river is known as the Vallée des Sept Châteaux (Valley of the Seven Castles). Farther south and west from the city of Luxembourg is Les Terres Rouges, or “The Land of the Red Rocks” around Dudelange and Pétange, home to much of the country's industry. East of here is the delightful Mondorf-les-Bains, a fashionable spa town on the edge of the Moselle region. This area, running north to south along the border with Germany, is Luxembourg's wine-growing district. |
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