Going to my FIL’s house to go through my MIL’s things has not been the highlight of the summer, but my FIL would rather purge everything now. It’s helping him heal and we need to organize her things some time anyway, but that doesn’t make it easier.
My MIL was always the gardener and my FIL let us know he planned to get rid of everything because he is not interested in plants, cannot keep up with the watering, and is pretty sure he would kill everything. 
We tried to organize a transport van in June to pick everything up, but the reservation was messed up, so we planned to do it after Luxembourg in what had to be the hottest week of the summer.
While the boys loaded the van, I stayed in the hot house and finished going through clothing, makeup, and jewelry. Below you see my sweaty face… just imagine trying on clothing in a house without AC in the high 90s. Melting!! 
While clothes are easy for the boys to let go, it made me sad to go through them. They all still smell like her. I can see why my FIL doesn’t want them around anymore. I saved a bunch of her scarves and now I have a lot of clothes to go through at home.
Also pinned up in the office on her wardrobe was a photo of my family from Christmas 2012. With family being so important to my MIL, she made it a priority to write down all of their names so she could learn all the names of my siblings and their spouses. It was just another sign of how much this woman truly loved and valued her family, whether it was in Switzerland, Brazil, or the US.
Back outside, the transport van didn’t have AC either and the fans were kind of broken. I was really just dreaming about jumping in lake Zurich, but we managed to transport this huge lot of plants home.
The hard part was then moving them from the van to the flat, up the lift, and out onto the balcony. Kay was sweating bucket loads by the time we finished.
Almost this whole line of plants were my MIL’s. She had so many! And they are gorgeous.It feels great to fill up the balcony with some pots finally, but I’m sad about the way in which we came about all the plants.
I can’t help wanting to show my MIL how the plants look here. She loved looking through my garden and seeing what I did differently. I hope I can keep her plants for awhile without doing them harm. They are so different than what I plant myself!
After visiting the the casemates, we wandered around quite a lot to find a place open for early dinner. We would up at 
Something about city trips always makes me feel extra romantic, especially during these last months with Kay. I want to soak up this time in a bottle and remember it later when we are alone and down.
I planned the Luxembourg trip ages back because I wanted to go somewhere for my birthday weekend and Luxembourg happened to have some affordable tickets then.
It did happen to be one of the hottest weekends, if not the hottest weekend in Switzerland/Europe of the whole year. It was 37ºC/99ºF and unlike Switzerland, Luxembourg does not have an abundance of open bathing opportunities like Switzerland. We nearly melted!
I asked the hotel staff where they go to cool down and they pointed us in the direction of two indoor swimming pools. Other than that, all the rivers/ponds/bodies of water outdoor were not for swimming. We figured it wasn’t worth going inside, so we just enjoyed the radiating heat after all our cold weather and accepted that we would be pretty sweaty by the end of the trip.
Luxembourg was small enough that we ended up going to the same tourist destinations as the other couples visiting the city. We ran into the same folks quite a few times at historical sites, museums, and even pub cafes.
It was great on Saturday to have a bit of “us” relaxation time in the park in the shade. Time like that is important to relish! 
I was also into photographing almost all the nature.
Down below there was a couple getting married on Saturday. The bride had a traditional white gown on and I can only imagine how much she was sweating in her dress. It was killer heat.
I thought the city was pretty charming for a weekend trip. It had a fair amount of hills to walk up and down and a strange mix of old and new architecture.
Here I am doing my favorite thing… ruining Kay’s shot. I learned from the best himself. 😉
We stayed at a 
Below we visited 
It was a little cooler out of the sun at least. 🙂
Sunday afternoon we went through a small brewery district in search of restaurants open for early dinner before our flight back.
All I really wanted to do at this point was sit down and enjoy a cold drink.
It’s always about a thousand times nicer to visit a city with great weather. It leaves such an impression on your opinion of the place.
At the end of our trip we were tired, hot, and sweaty. We had thoroughly enjoyed the heat even without a nice dip in water.