A Royal Affair

This weekend Luxembourg let her hair down and celebrated with the Royal Family as Prince Guillaume (heir to the throne) married Princess Stephanie of Belgium.  I must say, not being a royal-watcher, they did a nice job. Extravagant but not too flashy. All of the preceedings were held right in the Centre-Ville quarter. From what little I've seen of the Luxembourg Royals, they are pretty good at what they do, and they appear not too full of themselves. I've even heard rumors that one may bump into the Duke himself on the streets of Luxembourg City. 

Royals arriving on Thursday - view from our room.

Two days of celebration were followed by two nights of revelry. In our hotel we were sitting smack-dab in the middle of 'Ground-Zero',. We were able to watch all of the preparations as the second-string nobility filed in. There were Kings, Queens, Princes, Princesses, Sheiks and royals of all stripes from such far flung places as Morocco, Japan, Sweden...Bulgaria...Lichtenstein? Who new? Our hotel was under 24/7 armed surveillance. Rarely do you even see police in the streets here, but this weekend they were out in force...and heavily armed! Everyone (police and well-wishers alike) was very polite and helpful (as is the way with the Luxembourgers), but did I mention the police were heavily armed?

Yowza!

By far my favorites were the motorcycle cops. These guys (and gals) were swarming the city. I just love the outfits.

It was a bit dark...

...ah. Here's a better shot :)

 Here are a few parting shots of the preparations and the evening festivities. They set off the fireworks quite early (8:20pm to be exact), so we had to get what shots we could from a restaurant down in the Grund.

Why they needed oak trees inside is anyone's guess

Here's to the newest Royal Couple!