It has long been awaited...our trip to Luxembourg City and the town of Ernster. Lets start with Ernster. For those of you who don't know, Ernster is my mother's family name and the town that they hail from is Ernster, Luxembourg. It is a sweet, charming, and very small village about 20 minutes north of Luxembourg City. It is a conglomeration of modern homes and very, very old farmsteads. The town says it has 344 people in it, but I doubt it as it took TJ and I about 3 minutes to walk from one end to the other. I think it is about half the size of Grand Mound, Iowa and from what we saw and heard they speak both German and French there. I wanted to get souveniers for my aunts and uncle, but I am sorry to say that the only public building I saw was a church, and PS it was not catholic, although it may have been at one time. Also there were no Ernsters buried on the cemetary lot that I could see, but I did find a Fischer! Anyway here are the pictures from Ernster.This is the street we took to Ernster...
And the town limits...
Here I am at the crossroads of Ernster, it was very cute and clean!
One of the views from the outskirts...
And the church. It is a sweet church and their were volunteers cleaning the grave stones when we were there.
On the left you can see a more modern building right next to, well attached to an old barn and cottage house that was a few hundred years old.
After we left Ernster, we headed down to Luxembourg City and what did we find? Ernster everywhere!
And more Ernster...
And a little more!
Actually I was looking for an Ernster Apothecary, but couldn't find one. I am sure there has to be one and will look again next time. We went on a walking tour of the city and it is beautiful! I think fall was the best time to go as the colors were brilliant! Here is the origianl fortress entrance in the old city, which is still the main city. You can see the modern city behind in the distance. They had to build all new building to house the EU offices as it is one of three capitals of the EU.
Luxembourg is also a financial giant as it has over 150 banks in the city. The picture below is of the stone bridge that was built in 1904. It is very long and sturdy and still in use today. The city also has about 140,000 commuters that come in to work each day from surrounding areas including Germany, Belgium, and France. Partially due to this fact, the city is outrageously expensive to live in!
On our tour we visited the castle which contains a Notre Dame cathedral and what is now the national museum and library. It was amazing! The church had all the catholic fixin's as well as coats of armor.
And the altar was pretty awesome too!
And here was the entrance to the Grand Duchy Castle.
At the end of the long tour, we happened to catch the changing of the guard outside the parliment house. It was very cool!
We really enjoyed the trip and will make it back there, if for nothing else but the drive. Germany and Luxembourg have an amazing country side! For more pictures you can go to TJ's flickr at http://flickr.com/photos/tjlucero.
Auf Wiedersehen
And the town limits...
Here I am at the crossroads of Ernster, it was very cute and clean!
One of the views from the outskirts...
And the church. It is a sweet church and their were volunteers cleaning the grave stones when we were there.
On the left you can see a more modern building right next to, well attached to an old barn and cottage house that was a few hundred years old.
After we left Ernster, we headed down to Luxembourg City and what did we find? Ernster everywhere!
And more Ernster...And a little more!
Actually I was looking for an Ernster Apothecary, but couldn't find one. I am sure there has to be one and will look again next time. We went on a walking tour of the city and it is beautiful! I think fall was the best time to go as the colors were brilliant! Here is the origianl fortress entrance in the old city, which is still the main city. You can see the modern city behind in the distance. They had to build all new building to house the EU offices as it is one of three capitals of the EU.
Luxembourg is also a financial giant as it has over 150 banks in the city. The picture below is of the stone bridge that was built in 1904. It is very long and sturdy and still in use today. The city also has about 140,000 commuters that come in to work each day from surrounding areas including Germany, Belgium, and France. Partially due to this fact, the city is outrageously expensive to live in!
On our tour we visited the castle which contains a Notre Dame cathedral and what is now the national museum and library. It was amazing! The church had all the catholic fixin's as well as coats of armor.
And the altar was pretty awesome too!
And here was the entrance to the Grand Duchy Castle.
At the end of the long tour, we happened to catch the changing of the guard outside the parliment house. It was very cool!
We really enjoyed the trip and will make it back there, if for nothing else but the drive. Germany and Luxembourg have an amazing country side! For more pictures you can go to TJ's flickr at http://flickr.com/photos/tjlucero.Auf Wiedersehen
1 comment:
Hi Annie,
Found your post intresting.
My surname is ERNSTER as well. I live in Sydney, Australia, and my wife and I drove through Ernster in Luxembourg several years ago, and took a few photos startingly similar to yours.
Would like to get in touch and look into a possible family connection.
Cheers,
Robert
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