We had a long weekend here in Luxembourg, today being the Day of the Assumption of the Holy Mary. Luxembourg is a predominantly Catholic country. It became Catholic by a fluke of nature. The protestant Grand Duke William IV married a Portuguese woman, the Infanta Anne Maria, who was Catholic. He promised her that all their sons would be Protestant and all their daughters Catholic. Then they had six children- all girls. As a result the succession to the throne had to be changed so that girls could become the ruler (1907). Since then Luxembourg has remained Catholic.
My best friend and her husband came to visit from Germany, only a little of three hours up the road. That is one of the benefits of home swapping: you can agree with your exchange partners to have visitors. Their names and duration of the stay will be entered in the exchange agreement beforehand so that nobody runs a surprise B& B in your house. Our first swap partners this year, the people from Berlin, had their daughter who lives in New York visit them for two weeks in our abode.
This clause makes home swapping even more attractive and is one of the reasons we choose to go to Germany or a neighboring country so that family of friends can easily visit us.
Temperatures were in the low eighties.Together we walked the now familiar streets, saw the fortifications and also did a road trip in the convertible to nearby Echternach, the oldest town in Luxembourg. Its history goes back for more than 1,000 years. The remains of a Roman villa proved to be very interesting as well as the basilica that was visited by John Paul II in 1985. The Basilica St. Willibrord, the patron Saint of Luxembourg, houses his remains in the crypt in a white sarcophagus.
No comments:
Post a Comment