Our first venture out as tourists...

On Sunday, since we couldn't run errands, we decided to spend the day exploring the city.  We went into the center of town and, despite the freezing cold weather and snow, had a lovely time walking around and seeing the sights.

This is one of the main squares in the center of town.

There was a lot of snow!

Kids can't seem to keep their hands out of snow.  Why is that??

Naturally, Will was throwing snowballs at anything that moved:

These are the city bikes for rent.  Insert a coin and the bike is yours to ride around till you're ready to return it at another of these stands.  I love that they still have these here in the winter, and I actually saw someone riding one today in the snow.  There aren't nearly as many bikes around as in Denmark or the Netherlands, but I'd say there are more than at home.

There were a ton of cute shops around (mostly closed since it was Sunday) and I thought this toy store had an interesting window display:

The highlight of the kids' day (and mine too, quite honestly) was a stop at this chocolate shop.  You choose a spoon covered with chocolate, and they bring you a mug of hot milk to stir it into.  Delicious!  And there were dozens and dozens of flavors!

Will was in heaven (and this photo was taken before the sugar kicked in!):

Even Kate, who normally doesn't like hot chocolate, was a fan:

The hot chocolate place is right in front of the Grand Duke's Palace -- something Kate was very excited to see.  Will was more interested in seeing the guard and his big gun, but he was too intimidated to have his picture taken alone.  So I had to get in there too.

Next, we headed to the Museum of the History of the City of Luxembourg (or something like that).  It was a great place to get an overview of Luxembourg's long and confusing history:  Spanish to French to Dutch to independent to German and back again.  I can't say I have it down, but I know more than I did before.  Here are the kids in front of this amazing mural of life here in the 17th century:

We had lunch in the museum cafe, which had a spectacular view -- almost made the four-sandwich, 50 Euro meal worthwhile!