Luxembourg/Casemates/Grund/Back to Brussels.

After visiting all the WWII monument and memorials it was time to see the city. My first stop was the Casemates du Bock are a network of tunnels and galleries carved right into the sandstone cliffs — and I mean into the rock. We're talking 17 kilometers of I kept thinking about all the soldiers who sheltered here, the artillery crews who fired through those narrow openings in the cliff face. It's dark, a little claustrophobic in spots, and completely fascinating. I took the guided tour and it was worth it.

After surfacing back into daylight, I made our way down to the Grund, Luxembourg's lower town, which sits at the bottom of a dramatic gorge below the old city. The walk down(could not find the elevator) — on a winding path — gives you a whole new perspective on the city. I even made my way to the falls(No Niagara).

After 4 Night it was back to Brussels for a quick stop. I'd been looking forward to the Belgian Comic Strip Center — Brussels is the birthplace of Tintin and the Smurfs, and the museum is housed in a beautiful Art Nouveau building. The building itself? Gorgeous. The museum? Underwhelming if you didn't grow up reading these comics. Unless you have a deep connection to Franco-Belgian cartoon culture, a lot of it is going to feel like looking at pages you've never read in a language you might not speak. We moved through pretty quickly.

What redeemed the afternoon: Manneken Pis. Yes, the famously tiny statue of a little boy doing what little boys do. It's ridiculous. It's no more than 60 centimeters tall. There's always a crowd around it. And yet somehow it delivers — you see it and you just laugh.