I recently had the privilege of being flown to Brussels, Belgium to present at an industry roundtable, and, being the wanderlust-fueled individual I am, promptly decided to take a Friday evening red-eye and tack on a weekend traveling Belgium on my own dime. However, when I started looking into Belgium, I realized two things: 1) most of the cities I was interesting in visiting were across the country from one another, making it difficult to create a direct route by train, reducing my time spent exploring and 2) Luxembourg City was quite close, and when would I ever get to Luxembourg?

Once I started exploring the idea, it became clear to me that Luxembourg was exactly the kind of destination that was perfect for a mini-weekend trip: compact, a direct train ride from Brussels, direct to the other city in Belgium I desperately wanted to see (Bruges), and there was a beautiful Airbnb in a reasonable price range (and the owners had two gorgeous Bengal cats – it was a perfect match!). So, I packed my backpack (I’m probably the only business class passenger to ever have only a backpack as luggage), and headed off on my red eye!

When I arrived in Brussels, bleary-eyed and largely asleep, I somehow managed to get myself on the train to the main Brussels train station. I purchased a ticket to “Luxembourg” and promptly got on what I assumed was the train to Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. Apparently, there is a Luxembourg station stop within metropolitan Brussels, as I was kindly told by a conductor when she laughed at my ticket. Fortunately, a passenger spoke both Dutch and English and we were able to find me the correct train.

The ride passed relatively quickly as I took in the countryside, and shortly after lunchtime, I arrived in Luxembourg City. It’s a quirky town, made more interesting by the fact that the majority of the population commutes on a daily basis. I asked my Airbnb hosts why they were in town (they were Aussies) and got the perfect answer: he works for a chocolate company!

They recommended the perfect itinerary for my short time – take a walk through the main, modern town, down by the massive underpass, and into the Old Town. The walk, and the accompanying views, didn’t disappoint. I felt like I was transformed back to the setting of Beauty and the Beast, circa 1750.

After my walk, I stopped to eat dinner at a tapas restaurant, and quickly realized that the languages spoken in Luxembourg are also quite unique, including French, German, English, Dutch, and Luxembourgish, a mix of various components of the three, plus original components.

On my second day, before I headed to Bruges, I quickly explored some of the modern downtown area before taking off for Belgium. Overall, it was a great stop over, and someplace I’m sure I likely would not have gotten to otherwise.