I had set my alarm for 8:30, allowing for 11 hours of sleep. As it was, I awoke at almost 7:00 with a raging headache. It had started before bed, and at the time, I thought it was from exhaustion and dehydration. I now recognized it as the very specific caffeine withdrawal headache. Mon/6 and Tue/7 had been one long day for me, and I never got coffee on the “second” day. I had considered it when I finally reached my gate at FRA, but I was deliriously tired and the cafe menu and crowd had overwhelmed me.

I tried unsuccessfully to go back to sleep, getting up around 7:30 and rolling up the blackout blinds to find that it was raining.

Despite my 9 hours of sleep, I did not feel refreshed and I was starting to feel nauseated as well. The headache and nausea simultaneously meant I needed to get dressed and go out to manage my needs and made it very difficult to do so, as did the thought of walking through rain.

I powered through and researched nearby cafes, finding Glow. Hello, godsend. It was a 3-minute walk away, with a cozy vibe and a menu with offerings like avocado toast and acaí bowls. I was really not feeling well and not much sounded good, but I knew I needed something.

I ordered a coffee with milk, forgetting that Europe doesn’t make brewed coffee, only espresso drinks. I thoroughly enjoyed my steamed espresso, ignoring the milk on the side, and ordered the soy-coconut yogurt with fruit and housemade granola. I thought I was going to end up back in bed, but the coffee and food settled the headache and nausea and left me merely tired, which I could deal with.

Back at the listing, I chatted with Kasia’s partner, Jerome, whom I’d only met briefly last night. He said I was rather unlucky with the weather as this time of year is usually 7 or 8 degrees warmer and clear. The weather notwithstanding, he suggested I visit the Luxembourg City Tourist Office and do their UNESCO walking tour. Perfect! I searched online and found a KML file that could be loaded into Google Earth and a PDF file of the route that I downloaded and added to the Files app on my phone.

I checked email, logged money transactions, and began this post .. my usual laptop business. The rainy weather and my general state of being helped me relax into taking my time and not feel like I needed to go go go explore (though that feeling didn’t go away entirely).

I got dressed and went out around noon, purchasing a €4 day pass for the city bus and walking just a few minutes away to the stop that would bring me to Ville Haute (old town). As I boarded, I held my digital pass to the reader but nothing seemed to happen and the woman before me had just gotten on and sat down, so I did the same. I observed many passengers get on and off seemingly without paying.

It was a short walk from the bus stop where I disembarked to the beginning of the walking tour. I looked for somewhere to grab a quick bite along the way, finding a spot called appropriately Lunch Break. I sat at the counter with my tomato and mozzarella panini, and the gentleman next to me asked if I was from the U.S. What gave me away? I had asked whether I need to sign the credit card receipt; the machine said I did but the shop employee didn’t need me to. My lunch companion said it’s hit or miss.

He’s from the U.S. and has been living in Luxembourg since February for work. I asked him about paying for the bus, and he said many people have monthly passes that are validated once and then don’t need to be shown/tapped. Also, he’s never seen a ticket checker and he guesses that many people simply don’t pay.

After eating, I walked back out into the rain and around the block to begin my walking tour at Place de la Constitution, a landscaped city square with a view of the Adolphe Bridge and Musée de la Banque. A few steps away was the Monument du Souvenir, a “golden lady” commemorating Luxembourgers (this is a real term) who fought with the French military during World War I.

Old stone stairs led me down to Petrusse Park for a brief stroll through a bit of nature. On the way out, I encountered an elaborate skate park. Luxembourg City is a fascinating mix of the very old and very modern.

Old town is divided into upper and lower, with an elevator and escalator providing access between them and the valley being the Grund district where 1,000 years of history are preserved. I walked through Grund a bit, losing the tour route as both the Google Earth and PDF maps were difficult to follow, especially with data service being somewhat slow-loading. I had first encountered outdoor escalators in Barcelona and would have liked to take the one here, it being somewhat of a novelty (at least for this American), but only found the elevator.

The next stop would be my favorite of the day, Le Chemin de la Corniche, a viewpoint described as “the most beautiful balcony of Europe” by a Luxembourg writer. It overlooks the valley, with picturesque views of Grund, the Alzette River, and beautiful old architecture. It was raining hard while I was there, a bit of a bummer given how gorgeous this view must be in clear weather (and how wet I was), but it was still lovely.

Despite being one of the main attractions of old town, I skipped the Casemates du Bock, a series of fortified tunnels built in the 17th and 18th centuries and used as bomb shelters during WWII. I was ready for an indoor break from the rain.

The tour continued to a section of upper old town with hilly, narrow, winding streets that feel like a trip back to the Middle Ages. I snapped a photo of the turreted window that reads “Mir wëlle bleiwe wat mir sin!”, the national motto which translates as “We will stay what we are” and expresses Luxembourgers’ desire to maintain their sovereignty; at various points, Netherlands, Belgium, France, and Germany have all claimed territorial domain over this small country.

Across from the Palais Grand-Ducal, the palace residence of the Grand Duke of Luxembourg is the Chocolate House, where you select the type of milk you like (or alcohol.. too early in the day for me, besides not feeling up to par yet) and your flavor of “hotchocospoon”, a wooden spoon with a block of chocolate on the end that you stir and melt into the milk. Genius. I considered matcha, lavender, and rose, but opted for a local flavor. I googled “Schwarzwälder” — Black Forest cake, or cherry-chocolate — and “speculoos” — a spiced shortcrust biscuit made around the holidays and originating in Belgium/Netherlands. I chose speculoos and enjoyed the warm spices in oat milk.

The final stops of the tour were Place Clairefontaine, home to a sculpture of Grand Duchess Charlotte, who reigned from 1919 to 1964 and symbolizes resistance to Nazi occupation, and a Cathédrale Notre-Dame (“a”, not “the”).

Nearby was the tourist information center and I made a visit to inquire about visiting wineries along the Moselle River tomorrow. I had found during research at home that there are no organized tours but a city bus goes out there and another runs north to south along the river, and I wondered whether there might be a brochure or flyer summarizing the pertinent details or if the staff could give me some tips I hadn’t found. One of them printed out bus schedules for me and gave me some maps. I didn’t much want to carry papers around when I could find these things online (and I wondered about the long-term viability of tourist information centers), but it was a helpful gesture and they may come in handy.

It was 17:30 and I had plans at 19:00. I figured I would be too tired to eat later and so I opted for an early dinner. The American gentleman in the lunch cafe earlier had recommended Mamacita, a Mexican restaurant. Said they have the best burrito he’s had in a long time. I found that it was a 5-minute walk away.

I couldn’t quite tell if they were open yet and it seemed they might require reservations. The staff first spoke to me in French and then to each other in Spanish, presumably about whether and where to seat me.

This led me to do the thing I always do in Spanish-speaking countries, which is to say a few words in my excellent accent, because I began studying it when I was 10, which makes me sound like I’m fluent, and then I don’t have any idea what the person to whom I’m speaking says in reply because it’s so fast and I only practice when I travel, and I feel like an idiot for having to ask to switch to English. I couldn’t believe I’d recreated this dynamic in Luxembourg.

In English, I was offered to be seated now or come back at 19:30, in two hours. I asked to be seated now and was shown to a small corner table in the back. I ordered a petite sirah from Baja Calfornia, Mexico (who knew) and looked over the food menu. Burritos were €18 to €20. Must be a really good burrito, but I wasn’t going to find out. I got the nachos (€12,50).

As I ate, a wave of jet lag washed over me. I’d hit the proverbial wall. I hoped for a surge of energy to last at least until 20:00.

A couple days before I left home, I’d looked up geocaches in Luxembourg City. I don’t geocache much at home these days, but I always do when I travel, both to acquire new countries on my caching map and especially because it’s a great way to explore a new city as cache hides are often in places of interest and not necessarily the obvious ones.

I could not believe my good fortune when I found an Event cache happening on the second of my three nights in Luxembourg. “GeoCoinFest” events happen in the U.S. and Europe every year; cachers get together to trade stories and geocoins, both trackable (they move from cache to cache) and commemorative. This year’s Europe events are taking place in 8 cities during the first two weeks of May, and I just happened to be able to attend one!

It was originally going to be held at Place d’Armes, an outdoor square. I checked the app to make sure I knew exactly where I was going and to see if there were any updates. Indeed, the meetup was moved to a nearby bar due to the weather, which suited me fine.

I walked about 5 minutes to a bar called Banana’s, arriving at exactly 19:00 and finding a large group already gathered in the back room. I had posted a “Will Attend” comment and so several cachers greeted me with, “Ah, you’re the American!” I got a half-pint at the bar (Bofferding, made in Luxembourg) and took a seat. I purchased a silver geocoin commemorating the event for €8 and was given some wooden coins (“woodies”) as well. The rest of the hour I spent chatting with many friendly folks and “discovering” trackables, also known as travel bugs.

Each small item has a tag with a code that is tracked on the Geocaching site as geocachers optionally retrieve it from one cache and drop it at another, or it can be discovered, which is to log it without moving it. The two organizers were wearing hoodies with trackable codes on the sleeves; I’ve seen travel bug stickers on cars, but wearable trackables is a first for me. Fun!

Most attendees finished nerding out around 20:00. I stayed a little longer as a local described to me in detail the multi-cache he developed but hasn’t submitted for publishing yet because he’s still fine-tuning the 16 waypoints. As with any hobby, there are degrees of interest and investment, and I’m on the more casual end of the spectrum than this guy.

It was after 21:00 by the time I got home on the bus. I chatted with my hosts about my day for a bit and got ready for bed. I’d intended to do some blog writing but was knackered and slept at 22:15.

….I didn’t sleep.

I started to watch A Quiet Place and quickly realized an airplane is not the environment in which to watch a movie whose entire premise revolves around sound and lack thereof. I watched the beginning of Green Book because I was late when I saw it in the theater. And then I went ahead and re-watched 2/3 of A Star Is Born. I saw it in the theater on February 1 with no expectations, loved it, and have been listening to the soundtrack fairly regularly ever since, despite thinking of myself as way too cool to be into country-fried rock, ballad duets, and pop 🤷‍♀️

We landed in Frankfurt more or less on time, around 01:15 body clock time and 10:15 locally. I noticed as I got my bearings that my back did not hurt at. all. YASSS

And so I embarked upon the mindfuck that is FRA.

With 2.75 hours until my last connection to LUX, I was looking forward to using my Priority Pass membership at whichever lounge it qualifies me to access. The Luxx Lounge, the app informed me, was located between concourses B and C. I followed signs that way, but they seemed to lead to the exit. I asked a security guard (everyone here speaks English, which I had already taken for granted before arriving 😬), who confirmed that in order to access the lounge, I would have to exit security.

I didn’t want to kill that much time just sitting at the gate or paying for food and drink that would be free in the lounge, so I went for it. I exited and continued following the signs to B and C, but I ended up at the ticket counters. I asked a documents checker where I was going, and she said to access the lounge requires going all the way outside, through border control, and then it’s another 5-minute walk. WTF.

Now it was almost 11:00, and I didn’t know how long it was going to take to get back through security, so I bailed on the lounge, retraced my steps, and got in the long-ass security line. Sigh.

I didn’t have to take my shoes off, but when I pulled my liquids out, an unmarked bottle gave the agent pause. I had repurposed a travel size saline solution bottle for cleaning solution, since ClearCare doesn’t come in travel size, and had thus removed the label. This happened at WLG last year too; as at that time, it probably helped that I was wearing my glasses.

From getting in the security line to getting through the scanners felt long but only took about 25 minutes. I emerged into duty-free shops and passed through them to get to my A gate.

Oh, what fresh hell is this. Border control! This is an area I would have had to pass through had I gone straight from the Z gate where I landed to my A gate for the connection. Very strange. I waited in line for not very long and was called up to show my passport to a lad with a German accent who I got the feeling was perpetually amused in his job. He smirked his way through a few questions about the purpose of my visit, not in a smug way, more like… “silly Americans”.

I exited the border control area and into… the finishing end of a security area leading into duty-free shops.

Alright, where’s the Cheshire Cat?!

srsly OMGWTFBBQ

This is like a Star Trek episode, I’m sure of it, I just can’t think of which one because I haven’t slept in 28 hours.

Fully expecting to end up back at the border control line, I instead found myself on the way to my gate. Whew.

I reluctantly sat at the gate — because every time I stand up, my tailbone screams at me — and charged my phone while waiting to “board”. I scanned my boarding pass and went down some stairs toward double doors that I thought would open to the gangway to the plane but instead an Airbus was parked just outside the doors. Like.. no curb, just doors -> Airbus. Which was good, because if there was curb to stand on, I would have looked around wondering whether to get on. I don’t like this airport.

The shuttle took us to a plane that felt like it was two miles away (uh, kilometers, I mean). I have probably never been on a quicker flight. Up and down in barely more than half an hour.

LUX went a lot smoother. There was no customs area to go through, and my checked bag was on the belt by the time I reached it. The 29 bus to my Airbnb listing stops just outside the terminal, and I waited less than 10 minutes for the next one. I had researched this and downloaded the ticket app while still at home. I used the airport WiFi to buy a €2 city bus ticket with PayPal, walked across to the stop, activated the two-hour pass, and showed it to the driver when he arrived. Easy peasy.

I used international data to WhatsApp my host to say I was on my way and map the 6-minute walk from the bus stop to the listing in the Bonnevoie neighborhood. I arrived at 15:00, and Kasia greeted me warmly. She offered me water, we chatted a bit, and she showed me to my room. I have a balcony with a city view and my own bathroom. Lurve.

I dropped my bags and, praise the sweet baby jeebus, got horizontal. Aaahhhhhh. And I stretched.

I browsed on my iPad and laptop, mostly looking for a place to eat dinner and trying not to fall asleep. Around 17:00, I was dangerously close to nodding off and not waking back up until 22:00, at which point I would have been hosed for both dinner and good sleep. I made it until 18:00 when nearby restaurants began opening.

I researched Luxembourg food and found a site describing it as “rustic German heartiness, French finesse and a little Iberian flavour thrown in for good measure. When you think of food in Luxembourg, large portions, lots of meat, fish, potatoes, beans, and dashes of cream and wine should come to mind.”

OK, Indian it is.

I walked 4 minutes to Biryani Corner and ordered two veggie samosas, which I devoured, and a vegetable biryani plate, which I barely made a dent in. I hadn’t eaten in about 8 hours, since the breakfast service before landing at FRA, but that was as far as my appetite went. I imagine the long travel has thrown off my body in all ways.

I brought my leftovers back to the listing and found Kasia eating dinner. She introduced me to Zigi, her cat of two years. He’s dirty snow white and has one of those smoosh faces and the hugest, bluest eyes. I held out my hand for him to catch my scent and he let me pet him, which surprised Kasia. I told her I’m a bit of a cat whisperer.

My bathroom’s shower/tub combo is a very deep bathtub, and I decided to soak my sore and worn-out neck muscles (plane sitting, bag carrying). I asked Kasia whether there is a fan or vent in the bathroom that I wasn’t seeing, and she said to just leave the door open. Umm. For privacy, I didn’t want to do that, but I also wanted to respect the house rules, so to speak. Thankfully, I clarified with her that she meant *after* I was done. We both had a good belly laugh over my misunderstanding.

It would have taken about an hour and way too much water to fill the tub, so I ran it to a shallow depth and laid down. I again nearly passed out.. I let myself drift in and out of consciousness for a bit before I stood up and showered.

I closed the automatic roll-down blinds that shut out all daylight. As I hit Publish on these first two posts, it is 21:30 and zzzzzzzz

When I received the email confirmations for my United flights, I forwarded them to TripIt to create my Benelux itinerary. I do the same with Airbnb accommodations and Experiences and any other reservations I make. It’s handy to have all my trip logistics in one place, and the app also provides notifications for flight delays and gate changes faster than I get them from the airlines.

So I was a bit dismayed when this smart travel app immediately threw up the warning “Connection at risk”. My outbound itinerary allowed only 45 minutes for changing planes at SFO, likely in different terminals. At the time I booked, I thought this was cutting it a bit close, but I reasoned that United wouldn’t offer a connection that wasn’t viable and it was the best fit date- and time-wise from the limited selection available in the award travel portal.

The more I thought about it, the less confident I felt, so after a couple weeks of mulling it over, I called United, basically to say, “Really?” Their answer was, in the end, “Yeah.” The agent thoroughly went through the motions of getting me something better, which I appreciated, but because I’d paid with points, I was locked into a points-available itinerary and, as was the case at the time I booked, there wasn’t anything better. Also, I couldn’t just book myself on an earlier PDX -> SFO flight because not showing up for the first of my booked flights would cancel the whole itinerary. Only if I actually missed my connection would I be rebooked.

My task and challenge, then, was to trust that all would work out. Worry is just planning for things to go wrong, yeah?

I did a pretty good job of this until my fear came to pass. Initially, TripIt advised this morning that my first flight would have an early landing in SFO. The 45-minute window increased to 56 minutes, which was enough to remove the red “at risk” graphic, and that had me feeling pretty good.

I got through security at PDX nearly two hours before my 11:15 departure and had a leisurely breakfast at the Capers Café, courtesy of my Priority Pass membership. Boarding went smoothly, and then…. we sat. Some kind of traffic jam on the runway? We took off at 11:55. My connection was departing at 13:50. Fuckity fuck fuck.

I distracted myself with a Game of Thrones podcast (S08E04 aired last night) for most of the short flight. As we approached SFO and the flight attendants collected rubbish, I told one of them I was on a tight connection and kind of sort of asked for priority deplaning? I know this must happen all. the. time. and I felt weird about asking for special snowflake status, but I also wanted to advocate for myself as much as possible and the answer is always no until you ask. The attendant confirmed I was not special, replying, “There are 96 connections on this flight.” OK, but how many of them are to planes whose doors will be closing by the time I get off this thing?!

We landed at 13:19, and the attendants announced a request to remain seated if SFO is your final destination, which helped a bit with the crowded aisle upon exit. Still, it was just after 13:30 as I deplaned, and my connecting flight was two terminals over. Running was in order.

The black leather wraparound (read: bad-ass) bracelet I ordered from Etsy a couple months ago came unsnapped for the third time since I got dressed this morning. I pulled it off my wrist and kept running (OK, run-walking). Alas, I should have tucked it into my shoulder bag. I made the flight, sans bracelet. Goddammit, I really hate losing things (which I don’t do often). FOCUS! I made the flight… whew!

As I settled in for the 11-hour journey and perused the seatback movie selections, I realized this is my first flight since upgrading to Airpods. Oops… can’t connect to the videoscreen with Bluetooth. I’d also neglected to download the United app to my iPad. Ah, well.. I’d downloaded plenty of content to my iPad from Netflix and Prime. It wasn’t long before lunch service came around, and I found that both headphones and shiraz were complimentary ☺️

After I ate (lasagna, salad, roll), I plugged my headphones into the seatback screen and watched Peppermint. I loved Alias and had been looking forward to seeing some kick-ass Jennifer Garner; however, the Metacritic score was dismal and I didn’t bother. Good enough to kill time on a flight? Sure.

I turned the 95-minute movie into 2.5 hours with a couple long stand-and-stretch breaks. It was just in the last few days that I’ve felt fully recovered from my most recent bout of lumbar pain (L4 or L5 being the usual culprits) that started in February. Good timing, and all the walking I’m about to do will help even further.. I just need to get through the getting there. I would find over the duration of the flight that my back held up very well; what ended up hurting not insignificantly was my tailbone, like it was bruised from all the sitting.

Next up for viewing entertainment was Homecoming, the Beychella performance/documentary, on my iPad. Another 3 hours down.

That left 3 hours to maybe try to sleep….

I planned the shit out of my Recharge trip last year. I knew where I would be and when and how to get from every here to every there and what I would be doing at all the theres. This meant I got to see and do everything I wanted *and* I was exhausted *and* I was constantly stressed by the tension between living the trip and documenting and sharing the trip.

I learned that I don’t want to travel that way again and that I would like to build in rest days, during which time I could document and/or share my experiences between having them, perhaps while sitting in a cafe or pub. I might see less but I would also live like a local and absorb the culture.

My Benelux planning has thus been positively Zen by comparison. I booked my flights and accommodations and figured out how to get from the Luxembourg airport to my first listing. That’s it. I don’t have any specific plans when I arrive, just a vague idea of where to go explore. I have some loose ideas for Belgium and Netherlands, but I don’t know the logistics of getting around yet, beyond some cursory research into train travel.

This makes me a bit anxious but also feels right because I’m stretching out of my travel comfort zone and trying something new. I think these three countries will be good places to try this out as they are landmark-light and culture-heavy.

Fingers crossed I don’t end up with regrets about not seeing/doing this or that. FOMO is a bitch.