The seventh edition of Discover Luxembourg this past Saturday 6 September was a resounding success with over fifty different teams participating, many of which registered on the day.
The event consisted of a series of stations, situated around different iconic parts of Luxembourg City. Each team was given directions in writing (in French, German and English) which they followed through the streets of Luxembourg in order to ‘discover’ parts of the Grand Duchy’s capital. Whilst transiting between stations, the teams had to answer questions along the way for points and upon arriving at the stations they would complete a challenge, also for points.
Two different routes were offered – the Family and the Corporate – with the first being of shorter distance, around 6km, with the longer one around 9km and peppered with steps - particularly from Pfaffenthal all the way up to Limpertsberg.
Challenges were fun and varied. From quiyyes, wine tasting and blind food tasting to creative photo contests to a wooden plank race against time and rugby from the Women's Rugby Team of Walferdange who are currently on a recruitment campaign, the challenges not only tested the participants’ physical side, but also required them to have their thinking caps on, combining creativity, knowledge and outdoor activities all in one, as well as encouraging teamwork.
The participants in general showed fantastic spirit and even in the most competitive challenges knew that the greatest result was fun.
The event concluded with an announcement of the final results and the handing out of the prizes, which were given out to the top eight teams of each route category, with an overall winner also named.
Jaunty Juanjuta took first place overall, as well as winning the Corporate category with 925 points. The fittingly-named Green Team (the event’s t-shirts were green this year) won the Family category, placing second overall with 915 points.
The organisers, supported by the main sponsor of the event, BGL BNP Paribas, even treated the overall winners to a bonus prize – the traditional Tour de France Maillot Jaune (yellow jersey). Organiser of the event, Geoff Thompson closed the day, thanking all sponsors and the ISL volunteers for their hard work and encouraged them to partake again in next year’s version.
A truly fantastic day of fun for all and what is more, it was all for a great cause.
This year, Discover Luxembourg contributed to the Schengen Peace Foundation, which organises the World Peace Forum that aims at fostering prolonged peace in Europe specifically, something that the continent has benefitted from since the end of the Second World War, as explained by Aditha Sharma of the WPF. They want to encourage the introduction to a Ministry of Peace in governments and have speakers all over the world. Their initiative is supported by the EU parliament and more can be found at www.worldpeaceforum.org.
For the complete list of winners, see www.discover-lux.lu/current-event/ and for photos of the event check out the event’s Facebook page: www.facebook.com/DiscoverLuxembourg.
Photo by Geoff Thompson: Jaunty Juanjuta with Pascal Welter of BGL BNP Paribas
