Honestly, reminds me of my first visit to Zurich except that it did not sound like a one night stand beween Germans and a French here, more like German and Klingons.
Luxemburgish is fun, here is an example (and you will find a lot of this semi-professional stuff all over the country which I find kind of cute...):
Thanks to all for your input
I'll be definitely asking more question but in other threads.
5 years on and I still love it here (except for a bad day when it wouldn't matter where I lived as everything would be poo no matter where I was ).
I have a very similar setup in both countries: a house in a small, vineyard village about 20 mins drive from the city. Beautiful nature, forests and hills on the doorstep.
The biggest difference is how we were received as foreigners in either community. In neither country do we speak the local dialect.
In Luxembourg, the neighbours are super friendly. They offer to water our plants and organise tradesmen. Our kids pop round to their houses. Half the village seems to know us and always stop to say hello.
In Switzerland, I can just about get the immediate neighbours to begrudgingly acknowledge me if I say "guten morgen". All others ignore me, except on the several occasions when they approach my foreign-plated car to demand whether I'm authorised to park there.
There's also less bureaucratic red-tape to deal with in Lux. More than in the UK maybe but still less than CH. Plus it's done cheerfully.
Lux is also an expensive place to live for housing but at least the groceries cost the same as in France or Germany and transport (public or private) is cheaper than those two countries.
I had the choice of whether to stay permanently in Switzerland but I can honestly say that life is better in Luxembourg (for us).
I can't see these prejudices and negativity towards us 'so called' foreigners change anytime soon, although last time I looked England was in Europe the continent as Switzerland is , so I don't really see myself as foreign but just a few hundred miles adrift from home.
Thats unless Switzerland was never in Europe but on another planet, now thats a thought!
I’m looking forward to happier times again.........My last experience in Lux was work , champagne, fun, and more champagne!!!! I remember a very chilled atmosphere there unlike the uptight stuff you get going on here!
I guess it's (just barely) okay if you have a family, but if you're single, then luxembourg is a nightmare.
Consider:
- 80% of the people in luxembourg commute from belgium, france and germany. Those that don't commute daily usually go home on the weekend. What this means is that Luxembourg is empty during the weekend
- You think "great, luxembourg is so close to france, germany AND belgium... I can plan some great weekend getaways". Fact is, there is nothing nearby in those countries. Yes, Trier is nice and so is Metz but there isn't much going on there. And forget about Belgium, the south sucks big time.
- You NEED a car. In switzerland you can pretty much do everything by train.
- There is a convenient airport, but no low-cost carriers.
- Luxembourg has some nice landscapes but you can find the same in switzerland + they are more varied
When I was a kid we drove to Luxembourg in order to go out... and there is easily more happening in Trier than any Swiss city twice the size of it... but honestly: If you are looking for nightlife - don't choose between Zurich and Luxembourg, go somewhere else.
Yes to the car. "Frankfurt" Hahn is not too far away - because it's nowhere near Frankfurt... and I think Zweibrücken has Ryanair as well?
Mate, if you were single man in Luxembourg and having a boring time then you were doing something VERY wrong somewhere.
I first moved to Lux as a single in my twenties during the '90's. It's FULL of international, young women working on the European campus. All away from their home countries and looking to make new friends and party. I had a whale of a time with girls from Spain, Sweden, Germany, Belgium, France and even Luxembourg itself.
Even if you decide not to stay in town for the weekend, then Paris and Amsterdam are within easy distance. I used to go up to A'dam every 3rd or 4th weekend to party.
I met my Swedish wife there. We lived around Europe for 10 years then decided to move back with our young family because of the quality of life that we and the kids could have in Lux.
It is a small place and it doesn't have all the facilities of a major capital. It feels more like a historic, regional town (like, say, Bath or York in the UK) but that is part of it's appeal to me.
I don't like big, busy cities. In Switzerland, I've only been into downtown Zurich maybe 4 times!
I on the other hand have no particular attachment to either luxembourg or zurich.
And I apologize if my negative comments hurt your feelings (don't hit me, I wear glasses )
I would not chose just by numbers on a sheet of paper either.
If having fun and freedom figure in your balance sheet even so called quality of life data won't help much! After my first month in Zurich I was thinking of moving to another city for a livelier social life as I found it dead. A swiss girl explained I was actually living where it was all at... that if there was anything like lively it would be Zurich!! I guess you have to find it or make it for yourself. Things have changed a lot since then anyway.
But the only way of knowing is by trying it out!
Unfortunately...
I know it's hardly measurable, but to give a simple example: My parents do not need to invite the neighbours for a birthday - they'll show up on their own. Between ten and twenty of them, so they seriously prepare a dinner without knowing who will show up exactly. An average Swiss would find this terribly planned... and my neighbours here do not know my name, let alone my birthday or would come around for a drink.
If you come from a big, lively city, you may expect that stuff just happens like that everywhere and that you don't expect to put much effort in to creating an exciting life - just turn up.
Luxembourg is pretty rural with a small city in the middle. Outside that small city, there's barely any settlement larger than 4000 people.
I grew up in a rural area where nothing happened unless we made it happen, so that was my expectation when I moved out in to the world.
In Luxembourg, I was fortunate to quickly fall in with a like-minded core group of friends. We wanted to have fun and we wanted to meet all these girls we could see about, so we organised parties, events & trips ourselves and put the word out. People came (even if in the beginning it was mainly because there wasn't much else happening).
After a while, it got to the point where we could just announce which bar we would be hanging out that Friday night (bars that might normally be dead) and know that 30 or 40 peeps would show up. Now, they didn't show up because me or my mates were there - they came because they thought everybody else would.
Life's what you make it.