Beim Siggy

Count Siegfried, the first Count from Trier who built his castle here on one of the many promontories on the Luxembourg plateaus, was mentioned before.
What a surprise to see a restaurant by that name. "Beim" simply means "chez"; alors, we had to make a pilgrimage there. Actually, we found it by chance driving by. It's situated just past the casemates, still on the Bock.
Siggy is an abbreviation even nowadays for male or female names alike which are difficult yp ponounce for non-German speaker" Sieglinde, Sigurd, Sigismund, Sigrid and Sigrun.If you have read my Irish farm book, you know what I'm going to mention now: That my housekeeper asked me whether all Germans were called Siggy because there were several in and around the town of Killlaoe where we lived.

Food always features highly on our trips as well as views from restaurants; hence the emphasis I put on Burg/castle restaurants so far. The prices at Siggy's are reasonable. A yardstick for prices is always the steak for hubby. A superb fillet mignon was well-priced at EUR 27. I had a huge salad with baked brie and a big portion of charturie of antipasti at EUR 18. The view on a sunny day from their terrace: priceless!
To our surprise, our home exchange partners had never been there. Maybe know that they know a Siggy who gave it  a personal recommendation.

What are Casemates?

A UNESCO World Heritage site! The Bock casemates are is famous historical site and part of the fortifications in Luxembourg city, the city itself is also called the Gibraltar of the north. It was here that Count Siegfried from Trier (now Germany) built his castle first in 963.
Full of mystery, if only they could talk-- they would reveal gloomy stories of long ago when Luxembourg was the most envied fortification in Europe.
The word is derived from the Greek "chasma(ta" meaning chasm. It is a "bomb-proof" vaulted room situated in the actual body of the works leading to one or more embrasures or intended to accommodate  troops and equipment.

The interior had a spiral staircase with worn stairs hewn out of rock that reminded me of the narrow spiral staircases at Bunratty Castle in Ireland; hard enough to climb, tricky to navigate when you encounter traffic coming down.
Another set of casemates, even a hundred years older, The Petrusse Casemates, were currently closed for renovation.
Several legends tell the story of Siegfried's wife, Melusine. Allegedly, she was locked up in the Bock, knitting to pass the time and only doing one stitch a year. Another legend claims she was a mermaid and when Siegfried found out one day, she disappeared into the Petrusse only to come back every seven years and taking several people with her.
Here's a glimpse down her well, 47 m deep!

Nice and cool on a hot day, it's hard to imagine how people lived here during times of sieges. Visiting is a pure delight for children: knights, dungeons, canons...