You may be interested to know that they spent the last two years building a huge convention complex immediately adjacent to the terminal building. The airport facility itself hasn’t really expanded; the terminal is still small and the traveler capacity is still constrained. But now there’s a newly opened business park with thousands of square meters of space for hosting meetings with visitors.
We definitely understood that we weren’t a favored destination, not just for EU administrative business but also for the French bankers who manage their portfolios with Luxembourgish services. Whenever they flew into our airport, they knew they’d need to waste an additional thirty or forty minutes getting from there into Kirchberg or the city center for their scheduled activities. That was a problem — and we did something about it. Now, visitors fly in, walk literally next door, talk shop, walk back, and fly home. It’s been a very successful addition.
This is one of the things I respect greatly about my adopted home. When something isn’t working, we don’t just complain endlessly. We don’t always choose the right solution (there’s an abandoned train tunnel under the airport), but we take advantage of the fact that we’re very small and we don’t have a hundred different stakeholders with the power to obstruct progress. We make a choice and we move forward. No, we’re not perfect. But we’re trying.
The song Take Me Home, Country Roads by John Denver is about West Virginia. It mentions the Blue Ridge Mountains. But, as far as I can tell, the Blue Ridge Mountains are not in West Virginia.
It’s also possibly the most popular song in the world. Apparently, everywhere in the world, there’s a deep longing to “go home”, to a place that might not even exist any more, if it ever did.
The Blue Ridge Mountains aren’t confined within a single state. They, in fact, form part of the border between VA and WV. Parts of the WV Panhandle are clearly in the northern tip of that mountain range.
In case this is a serious question, the Shenandoah in question is a person, not a river. Although that doesn’t really answer the question, since that person was a member of the Oneida nation in what is now New York.
The west slope of the Blue Ridge is in Jefferson County, West Virginia; the state boundary runs along the height of land atop the Blue Ridge. The lowest reach and mouth of the Shenandoah River are also in Jefferson County, WV. The extreme northeast tip of the state. One county out of fifty-five.
Do people in the Western part of Virginia call it that? It’s similar to the South Detroit thing in Don’t Stop Believin’. In both cases the song writer was unfamiliar with the area and the lyrics fit the meter. Also in both cases the area has adopted the song with much affection.
That’s very interesting, thank you for sharing. I assume that’s you in the short-sleeved shirt where v. d. Leyen appears on the small screen?
The laws concerning photography in public places are less strict here, but I avoid making recognizable images of strangers on principle. If it does happen and I plan to do anything online with the photo, I ask them if it’s OK. They almost always say yes, and they seem to be glad I asked. Otherwise, I can usually get past the issue by cropping them out.
