Season trends at Lux Green garden centre

Ready or not, Christmas is coming and is coming fast. In less than 40 days the Big Man will visit and by that time we have to decorate the house, decorate the tree, buy presents, do it all. Different from my traditions in Romania, where Santa actually brings the tree and we usually decorate it on Christmas Eve, here I've seen houses and trees decorated as soon as Halloween was over which means the end of October, beginning of November. So, by that schedule the opening of the first Christmas Market at the garden centre came too late, but for everyone else it came just in time.

It was a sunny, but cold Autumn weekend in Arlonia and as Sunday is pretty much a dead day we decided to visit the garden centre, Lux Green in Messancy, which is open all Sundays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.. 

The Christmas Market at Lux Green takes care of all tastes, if you want to decorate your tree with green leafs, or with feathers or you just want a big fake cherry tree in the middle of your living room, or maybe a giant tent, the store has everything you could possibly want for Christmas in all colours and all styles. 

Personally for me Christmas is red. I'm the Coca-Cola generation, so I tend to look towards the red decorations and maybe green and last year I developed an obsession for wooden decorations which I plan to keep this year too, but I also like felt decorations so overall my head is a mess and turns out a trip to the Garden Centre was all I needed to clear it out. 

Of course I could not leave empty-handed, but looking at my queuing buddies, I was the only temperate one. The person in front of me spent 600 euros on Christmas Decorations. 600. Euros. I almost asked if she moved recently from like America or something and did not bother shipping all her stuff from home, but living in Luxembourg for almost 6 years now, I've learned that this is how life goes here for some people. Still. 600. euros. on Christmas decorations? Moving on!

As I could see from previous years, the Christmas Marked is organised on colours, which makes it easy to decide what you want. Still, I went from room to room and looked at everything. Compared to previous years, I could say that this year they were just not into decorating. I remember the first year there were whole rooms decorated, Christmas dinner and everything, then on another year they even brought a car inside, but this year the diversity of the decorations and their abundance makes this market worth visiting.

Starting from the beginning you enter the white room. So if you plan on decorating your house with white objects, here are some examples which I've liked.

Stepping into the green room, there is also a Christmas dinner table decorated really nice. I actually liked the plates enough as to think about buying a fancy set for ourselves. We didn't though, we have enough plates for now.

His name is Pointy and he came home with us. Luna loves it!

The green, nontraditional tree decorated with plates and nailed to the wall.

Maybe you fancy a jungle themed Christmas.

Or green ficus leaves decorated tree

Those candles were actually really big. The red one, costing 110 euros, was as big as an ice bucket.

Stepping into the black and white decorated room we encountered the white tree with black reindeer.

I really liked the socks reindeer, but it did not fit my colour scheme :)

Then we went into the blue/industrial/futuristic room, filled with copper wire decorations which I did not like and so you can't see them in my pictures. Liked the lamp though.

Then the cherry tree decorated with old perfume bottles and a lot of pink, to much for my taste

Then the feather decorated tree and room which I passed in a hurry cause I've seen glimpses of the next room and it was the red one

The red Christmas dinner table,

the red ceramic decorations,

the red everything

and even a red futuristic Christmas tree, a bit unstable, but still interesting.

Loved the girl, did not buy it

So there you have it, the Christmas Market at Lux Green Garden Centre. 

I hope you loved reading this post as much as I loved putting it together! Also, if you fancy keeping in contact with me, drop a line at Dichisuri.ro on Facebook. Raluca

Luxembourg - Visit the beer museum inside Wiltz Castle with your dog - Petopia event

On a cold Autumn day we embarked on another Petopia Event, which I could not recommend more, to taste some local Luxembourgish beers and visit a castle with Luna. As you may already know from their previous events (here, here and here) this was also great fun, it was very well organised and we got to visit the last castle in Luxembourg we did not check out from our list, Wiltz Castle. So, we got to be tourists in our country, together with our dog, Luna, we tasted local beers and visited a castle/beer museum. Could we ask for more? Don't think so.

There is a reason as to why we haven't visited Wiltz Castle until now and that is, most of the castle is rented to some University so inside one could find class rooms and not medieval halls. We did go to an event which happened in the castle's garden a year ago so pretty much we visited then what was to be visited from the castle.

Situated in the northern part of Luxembourg, Wiltz Castle was dated in the late 12th century. Of course the original castle was destroyed by the French in 1388 (if you've seen my latest post about Burg Cochem it too was destroyed by the French, I did not know the French were so bad, I guess I have to read a little bit of history first), they set fire to the castle so what you can see today is a reconstruction. The oldest towers date from 1573. Now beside the university the castle hosts three museums, the National Brewery Museum, the Tannery Museum and the Battle of the Bulge Museum.

We visited the National Museum of the Art of Brewing and at the end sampled the local beers. As avid beer drinkers, we previously visited the Bofferding Brewery, but had no idea about the existence of this museum. Turns out that it was actually opened in 1999 at the initiative of the Brotherhood of Gambrinus and at the end of the tour one can taste the beers produced in Wiltz: Simon, Ourdaller and Okult.

I think at the end we tasted six or even seven beers, so contrary to my knowledge, they produce a lot of types of beer. They are somehow (my opinion) influenced by the Belgian beers across the border, as they are similar in taste, but less alcoholic. I'm no expert in beers, so don't take my word for it, just go and taste them yourself.

The brewery museum is small but with a lot of memorabilia from all the Luxembourgish beers. You will see old taps, old glasses, old posters, old promotional objects...it is interesting to see the changes in Luxembourgish history reflected in these small beer related objects. I think even Luna liked the museum and she was surprisingly well behaved while we sampled the beers. It was nice to interact with other dogs and dog friends and like minded people. Overall a very nice event.

I hope you loved reading this post as much as I loved putting it together! Also, if you fancy keeping in contact with me, drop a line at Dichisuri.ro on Facebook. Raluca

Bohemian Rhapsody Movie Review

Boys and girls I don't know if you knew this about me, but I was (I still am) a big Queen fan, so much so I still know all the lyrics of the songs even to the disco album.

I was in Ireland when journalist Lesley-Ann Jones a member of Queen's inner circle launched the biography of Freddie Mercury when again their music was in heavy rotation on the radio, so this movie was something not to be missed.

***

Still, I live in trilingual Luxembourg now, where most of the movies in the cinema are dubbed if the original is in English, and this is not a movie to watch in French, it simply isn't. Also, I wanted to see it at the cinema and not at home on Netflix in the future years or on DVD, I wanted the experience my friends in Ireland told me about. About singing in the cinema, about Bohemian Rhapsody merch being sold at the entrance, about people taking pictures with the cast members of at least with some very big posters, that's what I've imagined.

Again, I live in trilingual Luxembourg, in boring Luxembourg I might say. In one of the most well known cinemas in the Grand Duchy, Kinepolis in Kirchberg I had as a bad experience I could get. The only fast food there is Mc Donalds and the fancy restaurants around the cinema don't serve food fast, which is what you kinda want when you head to the movies after work. Something to grab on the go. No way.

I had to queue for 15 minutes in Mc, gobble a burger with chicken (so they say), had a big Sprite I had to throw away because I was not allowed inside the cinema with drinks from Mc, although they also sell drinks and Mc is literally 2 metres away from the entrance, inside we had to queue again for popcorn and rush to the theatre to be on time only to wait another 20 minutes because guess what, if they say on the ticket that the movie starts at 19.15, it will actually start at 19.45 and not only that, once the movie started they still let people inside, rude people with their flashlight on their phones on, to find their place. Guess what you dick, your flashlight was in everyone's eyes!

That's a great movie experience in the Grand Duchy, everywhere else a very shitty one, but let's continue. I had to rant about that here, cause if not here, where?

***

For me, the movie was great. I even cried at some point. The lead actor did an excellent job and overall I liked the movie. Was there room for improvement? Of course there was and from my part the more biopics about Queen (to set the truth strait) the better.

I did not get why the teeth? Rami Malek has a similar bone structure to Freddie Mercury so I felt the teeth in some scenes were unnecessary. Why blue eyes? I mean you went as far as to create some false teeth and forgot about coloured eye contacts?

The other actors were also well chosen and in some ways made similar to Queen's band members. I thought Joseph Mazzello in particular was one on one with John Deacon. Here I have to ask why his part was somehow minimised in the movie? Is it maybe because Bryan May and Roger Taylor were executive producers or something and John Deacon wasn't.

I've liked the subtle jokes in the dialogue, the ones made especially because former band members were involved in making the movie, in particular the one about Bryan May's hair or Roger Taylor family life.

I would have liked to see more about their creative process in making the songs and the albums, in choosing the songs to be played at Live Aid and their order, and less about Freddie Mercury's personal life. Also it did not sit well to see that Freddie was the one splitting the band when in fact it was not him, as other band members (Roger Taylor) had solo projects before Freddie.

I don't know much about Freddie's relationship with Mary Austin, except that she maybe was the love of his life, she surely was a good friend, a special one in fact, but I think the movie puts her in a place she did not have. Also I would have liked to see more the interaction Freddie had with other singers of those times, such as David Bowie, Elton John, Michael Jackson. I don't know if it's true but in the first scenes of the movie you could see Bono and the U2 band members exiting the Live Aid scene, at least something like that if not real scenes. As I've said I would have liked to see more of Freddie's professional life and less of the personal. But that's just me.

I think also it was an amazing effort to squeeze most of Queen's career into a single movie, so I understand some of the aspects had to be left out.

I loved their wardrobe, the lizard jacket in particular, I hope someone gets the idea to reproduce it and I hope the movie would do well enough as Primark to create a clothing line inspired by it or something similar. I dream about the yellow leather jacket since I was a kid.

Here I have to point out (as some of you asked) in the scene where Freddie tells Mary he is bisexual, that is not a Romanian Blouse. The correct term would be an embroidered t-shirt inspired by a Romanian Blouse. There is a well known photo of Freddie and Mary in which she wears a short sleeve Hungarian blouse and maybe the one in the movie was the next best thing. I've seen the pattern on one of the shops selling similar blouses on Facebook, but it disappeared and I for one hope it stays that way, cause that is not a Romanian Blouse. In the 70's and early 80's those blouses were very popular, were indeed inspired by Romanian Blouses but were to say the least, the commercial (read cheap) version of the authentic ones. So it makes sense one to be in the movie as young women would often wear them.

Going back to the movie, as a fan of Queen I consider it to be an OK one. My regret is not living in Ireland right now and having to settle with Luxembourg. Still I have to say that the movie theatre was almost 90% full (despite of the lack of promotion of the movie in the Grand Duchy) and that most of the people stayed in their seats until the last credits rolled out of the screen. As I am that weird one who reads the credits. The movie had German (I think) subtitles and it was in English and to be fair all of the people around my seat were English speakers, so that was reassuring :)

At the exist I've spotted a poster of the movie and started taking pictures with it and there were also 10 or more people who followed my example. So why Kinepolis you did not invest in a cardboard with Queen or something to take pictures with?

Overall, I hope the movie would bring back Queen on the radio (of course not the ones in Luxembourg, I talk about real radios) and make them known to the younger generations. They really need to listen to real music (lyrics and all) and not what I'm hearing now played by my adolescent neighbour. And I hope in this day and age we can talk freely about what happened and remember Freddie for what he left behind. Did you know that he recorded until the day he died?

I hope you loved reading this post as much as I loved putting it together! Also, if you fancy keeping in contact with me, drop a line at Dichisuri.ro on Facebook.

Raluca

Germany - Burg Cochem - The castle you can visit with your dog

Also known as Reichsburg Cochem, the castle and the lovely town above are fairly close to Luxembourg, an hour and half drive. Although we've been to Cochem many times it was only this Autumn that I got to visit the castle and believe me it was worth it. 

Surrounded by the vineyards of the Moselle Valley, the Castle has a history of more then a thousand years, but what you could see today is a reconstruction of the original castle destroyed by the French in 1689. Only two towers remain from the original castle, this information and many others are given to you by a lovely guide. We took the English tour and I have to say it was one of the best tours I ever had while visiting a castle. Not only the dogs (the well behaved ones) are allowed inside the castle, but you are encouraged to take pictures, to touch the objects and the furniture and to ask questions.

What you have to know about the experience:

- the ticket is 6 euro for an adult and 3 euro for children, dogs go for free;

- be advised that inside the castle there are cats, so if you know your dog doesn't like cats, maybe keep him/her on a short leash;

- there is a free parking near the castle and there are some shuttles from the city to the castle;

- if you want to make it to the castle's parking, put your GPS to take you to the castle and not the town, from Luxembourg you will make it to the town, pass it, go round it somehow, pass through a forest and a gymnasium and then reach the castle, even though from the town you can climb to the castle on foot;

- the castle is guided tour only, the tours are in German and English;

- photography is not only allowed, but encouraged within the castle, the guide gives long breaks in each room for the ones who want to take pictures;

- during the weekend the castle has a lot more visitors than during the week, somehow normal, but be advised it can get a little bit crowded at times;

- there is a restaurant/coffee house inside the castle, but there are so many restaurants in town, so if you can't find a place in the castle's restaurant do not despair;

- you can also pay your ticket by card, I don't know about the restaurant, but I assume it's the same;

- there is a gift store inside the castle where you can buy postcards, magnets and other souvenirs, but also water or juices.

What I liked (besides visiting the castle with dogs :D) was the attention to details. It reminded me of being a tourist in Ireland, where once you decide to visit an attraction (castle, town, museum), you find everything at the tip of your fingers, in this case parking, toilets, souvenir shop, coffee shop, friendly guides and overall a nice experience. I hope I've encouraged you to travel even during the weekends, even close to home. Here are my pictures:

Picture taken from one of the castle's terraces. If it wasn't surrounded by vineyards, I could have easily mistaken it for Dinant in Belgium.

The fireplace reminded me of the Haut-Koenigsbourg Castle in Alsace, France, a castle we should revisit soon.

This mermaid with stag antlers as wings is said to grant you one wish, the tour guide swore by it, so one by one we touched its belly and started wishing

He is a Labradoodle, a newish breed of dogs created by mixing a Labrador and a Poodle, and he was visiting the castle with us. I have to say that Luna would not be so calm and silent, but I still want to bring her to this castle.

Visiting the castle in Autumn was a plus with all the colours the nature prepared for us. It was a clear sunny day, which made the visit even more pleasant as the castle has a lot of balconies and terraces from where you can take amazing pictures.

I hope you loved reading this post as much as I loved putting it together! Also, if you fancy keeping in contact with me, drop a line at Dichisuri.ro on Facebook.

Raluca