The avenues that radiate out of the central station. Avenue de la Liberté, Rue Glesener, the Place de Paris. Where Résidence Gare and Four Stars Apart Hotel sit.
Cross the Pont Adolphe and the city changes register. The bridge itself is worth the crossing: designed by Paul Séjourné, inaugurated in 1903, its 85-metre central span was the largest stone arch in the world when it opened, and it has stood for Luxembourg's independence ever since. A suspended deck was later hung beneath it for cyclists and walkers.
On the far side is the Gare quarter, the city's most cosmopolitan — grid-planned avenues of ornate stone facades laid out at the turn of the last century, trams, brasseries and terraces around Place de Paris, and, closing the vista down Avenue de la Liberté, the Moselle-Baroque station of 1913 with its clock tower. You can hear French, Luxembourgish and Portuguese in a single café.
Two of our houses live here. Résidence Gare stands at 59 Avenue de la Liberté, the tallest of the four, its studios sized for a working week or a working month; Four Stars Apart Hotel is a few streets over on Rue Glesener, with a balcony on every apartment and the space families ask for. The central station — and free trains to the rest of the country — is minutes from both.
