Luxembourg
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Luxembourg, or officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a country in Western Europe, landlocked between Belgium, France and Germany. It has about 450.000 inhabitants and the official languages are French, German and Luxembourgish; English is widely spoken. The capital of Luxembourg is Luxembourg City.
Contents |
Meetings
Meetings are irregular but always mentioned on Group threads. Some of these meetings are such a success that people regularly join us from the surrounding countries.
Tips
In a restaurant, never ask for tap water, they don't serve it (only mineral water).
CouchSurfers
There are currently around 430 CouchSurfers in Luxembourg, most of them are living in or around the capital (last update - August 2008)
Accomodation
You are coming to Luxembourg for an internship or for a career? To find a flat, an apartment, or a space to share, please visit these pages:
Appartager
Station.lu
At home
Immolux
Immostar
Les Frontaliers
Real estate prices in Luxembourg are relatively high, especially when you consider settling down in the Luxembourg-city. Prices are varying, depending on the situation (distance to the city,...), the space, and of course the landlord's will :).
Luxembourg-city consists of several areas called "quartiers".
You can consult an interactive map of the city of Luxembourg that allows you to filter sour search per street. This may be a handy tool when looking for a place to stay.
Close to the city-center (5-10 minutes walking distance): Limpertsberg, Belair, Merl and Hollerich (left-side of the route d'Esch) are the most popular areas, but prices tend to be quite high, Kirchberg is also a nice area (proximity to the European Institutions, banks, offices, etc.). A big advantage of these areas is that those are the few remaining "quartiers" that have managed to maintien quite a large offer of proximity commerces and services, which are slowly dispappearing from the other areas of the city.
More noisy but affordable areas in the city are: Bonnevoie (lots of smaller convenience shops), Hollerich (right-side of the route d'Esch; proximity to bars and clubs), but also Gasperich, Cessange, Beggen, Rollingergrund, Dommeldange, Eich, Pfaffenthal, Pulvermühle, Weimerskirch, Weimershof, Clausen, Neudorf, Grund, Cents, Hamm, ... But here you have to be aware of the fact that a car might quickly become indispensable (for bigger grocery shppoings etc.)
Some areas are not part of the city of Luxembourg but are still quite close to the center: Holwald, Strassen, Bertrange, Walferdange, Niederanven, Hesperange...
Another advice: avoid to find a flat or a room along a main street
Outside of the city: a lot of small cities and villages are located around the city that you can reach in around 10-25 minutes by bus, by train, or by car (aaaaahh traffic jams!!)
Outside the outside: very nice villages around, very affordable real estate prices, but you have to accept that you will live quite very far away from the city, which might be an inconvenience if you want to spend a lot of your free time in the city (nightlife, shopping, culture, after-work drinks in Lux city, etc.).
You can also choose a place across the borders of the country (France - Lorraine ; Belgium ; Germany)
For short-term stays (1 month or more), you may try visiting these websites:
(in french) Centre Information Jeunes
and this other page only for internship Wunnraum fir Stagiairen
Transportation
Luxembourg is a small country with a relatively elabortae and well functioning network of public transportation. Local buses and local trains are frequent. A short duration ticket costs 1.50 € and is valid for 2 hours. When travelling around, a one day pass for the complete network, called long distance, costs 4 €. In addition, there's a week-end ticket (6€) for up to five people travelling together. Bicycles and dogs can be transported in trains, free of charge. This allows you e.g. to make a combined visit to some of the smaller towns in one day. All schedules are available on the Mobility Central's web site.
Furthermore there are frequent train connections to Belgium, France and Germany and a direct cheap coach to the airport of Frankfurt Hahn, famous for low-cost airlines.
Germany:
If you have chosen to live outside the country and wondered how to come easily to Luxembourg without using your car, there are several possiblities.
From Trier, you can take the bus number 118 from the City Center to Kirchberg / City center Sales-Lentz
or the train with regular connections Deutsche Bahn.
Belgium:
Belgium is known to be offering some of the best railroad connections in Europe. Well, it depends of the part of the country actually. Whatever, it's quite easy to reach Arlon/Luxembourg using the train. There are1 to 2 trains per hour and 3 generally during rushhour.
NEVER hesitate to ask if there is a discount for your age or so. And ask your complete question also :)
Belgian train network:
SNCB-NMBS
Other buses in Belgium (Wallonia):
TEC
France: SNCF
To be completed...
Trivia
National airline
National rail
National tourist office
Luxembourg City Tourist Office
Luxembourg 2007 Capital of Culture
Agenda of events
Luxembourg city shopping
Culture
Culture has known quite a big development since 1995, when Luxembourg has first been given the title "European capital of culture". After the success of the projects that were offered during that year, the governmnet decided to invest into the consitruction of cultural infrastructures. Right now, the cultural landscape has become quite impressive for such a small country/city. In 2007, it was for the second time that we have been given the official title "European Capital of Culture" together with some cities of the greater Region (France - Lorraine, Belgium - Wallonie, Germany - Rheinland-Pfalz & Saarland).
Here is a listing of some of our major cultural infrastructures:
MUDAM
The MUDAM - Grand Duke Jean Museum of Modern Art (French: Musée d'art moderne Grand-Duc Jean) is a museum of contemporary art in Luxembourg City. The museum stands on the site of the old Fort Thüngen, in the Kirchberg quarter.
The building was designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect I. M. Pei.
The Museum's collections are set out on three floors and include works by many artists and designers such as Alvar Aalto, Marina Abramovic, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Pierre Bismuth, Sophie Calle, Hussein Chalayan, Claude Closky, James Coleman, Tony Cragg, Richard Deacon, Mark Dean, Stan Douglas, Jan Fabre, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Roland Fischer, Günther Förg, Gilbert & George, Nan Goldin, Andreas Gursky, Thomas Hirschhorn, Fabrice Hybert, William Kentridge, Mark Lewis,[disambiguation needed] Richard Long, Michel Majerus, Christian Marclay, Martin Margiela, Steve McQueen, Bruce Nauman, Shirin Neshat, Albert Oehlen, Blinky Palermo, Philippe Parreno, Grayson Perry, Fiona Rae, Pipilotti Rist, Thomas Ruff, Thomas Scheibitz, Julian Schnabel, Cindy Sherman, Thomas Struth, Wolfgang Tillmans, Cy Twombly and Kara Walker.
CASINO - Forum for contemporary Arts
The Casino Luxembourg - Forum for contemporary Arts organises, all over the year, exhibitions about contemporary art, inisisting on the diversity and the complexity of the current procedures and forms of expressions. The 12 exhbition rooms (cubes)of the renovated historic building are used in a dynamic way, thus numerous exhibitions can be held at the same time, accompanied by a rich program of guided tours and thematics, conferences, discssions, but also get togethers with contemporary music.
Neumünster Abbey
The Neumünster Abbey is a public meeting place and cultural centre, located in the Grund district of Luxembourg City. Following extensive renovation works, the Neumünster Abbey was opened to the public in May 2004 as a meeting place and a cultural centre. It hosts concerts, theater plays, exhibitions, and seminars.
The National Museum of History and Art
The National Museum of History and Art / Musée national d'histoire et d'art - MNHA, is a museum located in the center of Luxembourg City. It is dedicated to displaying luxemourgish artworks and historic artefacts. The museum is situaed at the Fishmarket, in the historic heart of the city.
The National Museum of Natural History
The National Museum of Natural History - Musée national d'histoire naturelle is a natural museum that is dedicated to natural history in Luxembourg City. The museum is located in the Grund quarter on the eastern bank of the Alzette river, next to the Neumünster Abbey cultural centre.
The museum is composed of eight separate scientific sections, spanning the natural sciences: botany, ecology, geology and mineralogy, geophysics and astrophysics, palaeontology, vertebrate zoology, and invertebrate zoology.
The new museum has opened in June 1996, the exhibitions are spread across three buildings, each dedicated to a different aspect of the museum's functions: collection displays, teaching classrooms, and research laboratories.
Philharmonie Luxembourg
The Luxembourg philharmonic concert hall is also known as the Grande-Duchesse Joséphine-Charlotte Concert Hall. The hall is located in the Kirchberg quarter just behind the MUDAM (see above), in the north-east of the city. Its principal tenant is Luxembourg's national orchestra, the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra.
The building was designed by French Pritzker Prize-winning architect Christian de Portzamparc. The grand auditorium has a maximum capacity of 1,506 seats, but the standard capacity is set at 1,226. Even at that reduced size, the auditorium is large for a city with a population of under 80,000. Two further halls, with capacities of 302 and 120 people, increase the capacity of the site furthermore.
The Philharmonie constitutes an exceptional setting for musical and artistic events, conferences and other such activities: philharmonic and classical concerts, orchestras, chamber music, early and baroque music, modern music, string quartets, vocal recitals, piano recitals, organ recitals, jazz, world & easy listening, studios & workshops, concerts for young people, interactive musical workshops for children and adolescents, etc.
The building was inaugurated on 26 June 2005, as a culmination of Luxembourg's six-month presidency of the Council of the European Union.
Concert hall "Grand-Duchesse Josephine Charlotte"
1 Place de l’Europe
L-1499 Luxembourg-Kirchberg
Tel. +352 26 32 26 32
Fax +352 26 32 26 33
E-mail: tickets@philharmonie.lu
Internet: www.philharmonie.lu
Rockhal
Boasting two concert halls – the Main Hall that can accommodate an audience of up to 6500 and the Club that can hold 1200 – the Rockhal, a complex managed by the public institution Centre de Musiques Amplifiées and co-financed by the Luxembourgish State, is the biggest venue for contemporary or amplified music in Luxembourg.
The Rockhal is also a Music & Resources Centre, comprising no fewer than six rehearsal rooms, a recording studio, a dance studio and a Documentation Centre. In short, a place where players of the Luxembourg music scene, professional and amateur alike, can interact and share their views on the local industry.
Inaugurated in September 2005 with concerts featuring The Prodigy and KoRn, the Rockhal has set itself the objective of strengthening Luxembourg’s position on the international music map. Since then, more concerts have followed… with no two alike! Diversity, eclecticism and a variety of genres… these are the key elements of the Rockhal’s artistic vision.
Putting Luxembourg on the map of rock music is the ambition of the Rockhal, which is located in the south of the country on the industrial wastelands of Belval-Ouest in the south of the country next to the 2nd biggest city of Luxembourg : Esch-sur-Alzette.. The Rockhal aspires to become a meeting place for the Luxembourg and international music scene (rock&pop, blues&jazz, contemporary dance shows).
Concert hall Rockhal
Friches industrielles Belval/Ouest
P.O. Box 291
L-4003 Esch-sur-Alzette
Tel. +352 24 55 51
Fax +352 24 55 52 22
E-mail: info@rockhal.lu
[Internet: www.rockhal.lu]
TICKETS
Den Atelier
The Atelier is a smaller music venue with a club atmospherein the city of Luxembourg - Rue de Hollerich, 54 in Luxembourg-City, 200m from main railway station - that also regularly organises concerts in the building of the Rockhal (see above); live gigs with singers and groups of international standing, Luxembourg groups, dance-hall, disco-clubs, special events, theatre, parties, exhibitions, etc.
The idea to start up a live music club in Luxembourg goes back to the beginning of the 90's. Venues such as the Ancienne Belgique (Brussels), the Botanique (Brussels), the Vooruit (Gent), the Bataclan (Paris), the E-Werk (Cologne) or the Paradiso in Amsterdam provided the inspiration and stand as the godfathers of the idea of building up den Atelier in Luxembourg as it stands today in a former truck garage in the lively Luxembourg-City suburb of Hollerich.
The Music Conservatoire of the City of Luxembourg
The Music Conservatoire of the City of Luxembourg, a spacious and functional building, also has an auditorium with magnificent acoustics which have enchanted many artists (Bernhard Haitink, Mstislav Rostropovitch, Martha Argerich, Felicity Lott, Lazar Berman among others). The conservatoire concerts involve classical and jazz music. The Music Conservatoire also houses a museum of early instruments, a specialist library, a music library and a vast archive of musical works.
33 rue Charles Martel
L-2134 Luxembourg
Tel. +352 4796-5432
Fax +352 44 96 86
E-mail: cml@vdl.lu
[Internet: http://conservatoire.vdl.lu]
Theaters in Luxembourg
Théâtre Municipal de la Ville de Luxembourg - Luxembourg Ville
The Grand Theatre of the City of Luxembourg hosts and co-produces operas, musical theatre, dance shows (classical or contemporary) and theatre performances. It collaborates with some of the great international companies and festivals such as ‘La Monnaie de Bruxelles’, the ‘Nederlandse Opera d’Amsterdam’, the ‘Wiener Festwochen’ and the Festival of Aix-en-Provence and regularly hosts prestigious productions from the ‘Thalia Theater Hamburg’, ‘Schauspielhaus Wien’ and ‘Théâtre de Gent’. The theatre has two show rooms (950 and 300 seats).
1 Rond-Point Schuman
L-2525 Luxembourg
Tel. +352 4796-3900
Fax +352 46 57 77
E-mail: grandtheatre@vdl.lu
[http://www.culture.luxweb.com/theatre/t-national.php
Théâtre National du Luxembourg - Luxembourg Ville
The National Theatre of Luxembourg (TNL) has two roles: to be a theatre of language and literature (in the three languages used in Luxembourg – Luxembourgish, French and German) as well as a theatre for opera and contemporary musical creations. Furthermore, the TNL operates as a theatre for creation in general – authors and composers of Luxembourg can use the theatre as their point of reference. From 2005/2006, has also opened itself up to the field of dance.
194 route de Longwy
L-1940 Luxembourg
Tel. 26 44 12 70
Fax 26 44 70 13.
Email: info@tnl.lu
[Internet: http://www.tnl.lu]
Théâtre Ouvert de Luxembourg - Luxembourg Ville
Contemporary theatre
143 route de Thionville
L-2611 Luxembourg
Tel. +352 49 31 66
E-mail: tol@tol.lu
[Internet: http://www.tol.lu]
Théâtre des Capucins - Luxembourg Ville
9 Place du Théâtre
L-2613 Luxembourg
Tel. +352 4796-4054 or +352 47 08 95-1
Fax +352 46 50 65
E-mail: capucins@vdl.lu
[Internet: http://www.theater-vdl.lu]
Théâtre des Casemattes/ Kasemattentheater - Luxembourg Ville
14 rue du Puits
P.O. Box 452
L-2014 Luxembourg
Tel. +352 29 12 81
E-mail: info@kasemattentheater.lu
[Internet: http://www.kasemattentheater.lu]
Théâtre du Centaure - Luxembourg Ville
Théâtre du Centaure "Am Dierfgen"
Contemporary theatre
4 Grand-Rue
P.O. Box 641
L-2016 Luxembourg
Tel. +352 22 28 28
Fax +352 26 27 06 33
E-mail: centaure@pt.lu
[Internet: http://www.theatrecentaure.lu]
Kulturfabrik (Centre Culturel)- Esch/Alzette
116 rue de Luxembourg
L-4221 Esch-sur-Alzette
Tel. +352 55 44 93-1
Fax +352 55 04 03
E-mail: mail@kulturfabrik.lu
[Internet: www.kulturfabrik.lu]
Théâtre Municipal d'Esch/Alzette - Esch/Alzette
Municipal Theatre of Esch-sur-Alzette
Contemporary and classic theatre, contemporary dance, operas, operettas, musicals, concerts (classical music, brass, recitals, jazz, percussion, singing), art gallery (photos and painting), conferences, etc.
122 rue de l’Alzette
L-4010 Esch-sur-Alzette
Tel. +352 54 03 87 or +352 54 09 16
Fax +352 54 73 83-650
E-mail: reservation@theatre.villeesch.lu
[Internet: http://www.theatre.esch.lu]
National Sports and Cultural Centre - Coque
The ‘D’Coque’ National Sports and Cultural Centre with its arena can hold up to 8300 spectators and numerous other spaces are available as a venue for exceptional cultural events to various musical groups, theatre groups, singers and artists. Conference centre.
2 rue Léon Hengen
L-1745 Luxembourg
Tel. +352 43 60 60-1
Fax +352 42 33 15
E-mail: info@coque.lu
[Internet: http://www.coque.lu]
Places of interest in other cities:
ECHTERNACH
The Echternach Center for culture, torusime and congresses has one concert hall concerthall (605 seats), as well as a smaller hall for concerts and theater (312 seats).
2 place du Marché
Postfach 22
L-6401 Echternach
Tel. +352 72 92 22-52
Fax +352 26 72 18 35
E-mail: ralf.britten@echternach.lu
ESCH-SUR-ALZETTE
[Internet: http://www.kulturfabrik.lu Kulturfabrik]
This former slaughterhouse has been transformed into an alternative cultural center that attracts its public even accross the borders. This trans-and intercultural Institution offers more than 200 events per year: contemporary, modern, classic and world music, arts, exhibitions, literature cafés, dance, conferences, theater, cineam, circus, workshops, etc.
116 rue de Luxembourg
L-4221 Esch-sur-Alzette
Tel. +352 55 44 93-1
Fax +352 55 04 03
E-mail: mail@kulturfabrik.lu
[Internet: www.kulturfabrik.lu]
ETTELBRUCK
The Ed. Juncker CAPE Centre for Plural Artsin Ettelbruck puts on more than 80 shows per year, drawing on all disciplines of artistic expression: music (classical or contemporary, jazz, world music), opera, operetta, French, German and Luxembourg theatre, cabaret, dance, pantomime, exhibitions and much more.
1 Place Marie-Adélaïde
L-9063 Ettelbruck
Tel. +352 26 81 21-1
Fax +352 26 81 21-301
E-mail: mail@cape.lu
[Internet: http://www.cape.lu]
MARNACH
The cultural center "Cube 521" is a forum for people that are active in the field of culture in Luxembourg as well as abroad. It is a multidimensional meeting site with a lot of high quality events. This projetct reflects a courageous vision, born out of the necesity to reinforce the cultural sphere in the northern part of the country.
CUBE 521
1, Driicht
L-9764 Marnach
Tel.: +352 521 52-1
Fax.: +352 521 52-9
E-mail: info@cube521.lu
[Internet: http://www.cube521.lu]
MERSCH
The ‘Mierscher Kulturhaus’ cultural centre – concerts (classical, contemporary, modern jazz, gospel&soul), Luxembourg theatre and theatre for children, cabaret, dance, exhibitions, seminars, workshops and training programmes.
53 rue Grande-Duchesse Charlotte
L-7520 Mersch
Tel. +352 26 32 43-1
E-mail: info@kulturhaus.lu
