Shipping

Internet shopping from Luxembourg (electronics, photo, computers etc.) is possible despite very limited local offer. OK, some of the street retailers here sell via Internet: HIFI.lu, Exell.lu (branch of Belgian company), Auchan.lu (French by origin) but thier offer is not really up to expectations. [Edit: check Darty.lu...]

To have more choice you have to count on shops shipping goods from other EU countries (or else), but you need to verify if they actually send stuff to Luxembourg. From my observation I have composed a small list (updated slightly):

• Amazon.co.uk - DVD, books OK. Electronics too! I guess most of other stuff as well (including affiliated sellers). No DVD rental by mail.
  
• Amazon.de - worth a try :) I will have to check French Amazon as well.
• Pixmania.lu - OK (ordering a gift to other country was possible but not really straightforward). There were website problems (early 2009), but maybe I was unlucky.
  
• Beamer24.de - OK but payment only by bank transfer.
• LDLC.com - OK - also only bank transfer. Shipping significantly more expensive than e.g. Pixmania.
  
• Dell - possible. Currently I do not know the details but you can start with Dell.lu, Dell.be or .nl and as soon as you have ordered a PC it's worth calling them to work out the details that were not possible on the website (change parts, extras and price).
  

On the other hand, you won't get anything shipped to Lux from: LDLC.be, Grossbill.fr, Materiel.fr, FCC-informatique.com, and many others ;) Which actually could. So far the free movement of goods and services in EU is not the same as free trade within US - from the Internet shopping point of view.

Iechternach

Echternach - a city by the sour river. Oldest city in the country. Good for walks as opposed to Ettelbruck. Although you can go there once too.

Travelling - Wetzlar

Driving through Germany you can see more than just Autobahn. This time it's Wetzlar - an old city of optics.

Travel - Tychy

Christmas, holidays, visits. So I did some photos in Tychy, street kind of photos. Some properly maintained architecture, some not.



Unused blocks of land in the middle of the city. Local kind of Central Park ;) :


18-storey apartment building and a health center:


I have never seen before this kind of sign. It seems they don't like to have driving schools using their streets for practice:

A nip of salt

Cold. Not like in Germany or Poland (-25 C), but -10 is no summer ;) Barely any snow whatsoever but the roads are white. Nothing new - the streets are salted and resalted generously. It's visible even on the motorways motorways:

source: RTL.lu

Belval

Heavy industry was once blooming in the south of Luxembourg. The biggest city there - Esch-sur-Alzette is still a center of steel production in the country and one of the biggest employers is the steel giant - Arcelor. But the production now is reduced and part of the infrastructure stands unused.

Currently the place is being transformed into a commercial and entertainment center Belval, also there is a university campus planned. You can still see the old, unused steelworks furnaces located next to the modern buildings. It such a picturesque location but it is not possible to get really close or enter inside those castles of steel and iron.


Content of one of the above photos was slightly edited (apart from the usual touch up). Which one? ;)

Mullerthal

Short but satisfying Sunday walk between Mullerthal and Consdorf in Luxembourg's Little Switzerland . There are many interesting trails in that area amidst rocky walls, gorges, with bridges, waterfalls...


Once before I was on a similar walk, alittle longer, on a trail from Beaufort. Recommended.