October 15, 2025, Metz- Stately Hotel Escurial is probably the easiest to find, of any hotel that hasn’t been right next to the Train Station (only the hotel in Helsingor, Denmark has fit that description). It is bordered by a health food grocer, with bright green lettering and the Hotel Cecil, which once catered to the British upper crust, is prominently to the west of Escurial. Besides, it has a regal Spanish ring to it.

I arrived here in mid-afternoon, the first stop of three, on a Strasbourg-Luxembourg route, which I last took in the opposite direction, in 2014. At that time, Metz was more a place for regrouping my energy, as Strasbourg was this time. Today was more about giving Metz the limelight.

I got my laundry done in Strasbourg, for the most part figuring out the instructions, which were in French, and managing to get the clothes washed and dried within the allotted time and walked back to Hotel Strasbourg, in plenty of time to return to the main train station. I even helped a college student and a disabled woman, just a little.

Once in Metz and settled in at Hotel Escurial, it was off to look at two different areas of the Old City. First, though, I had to get a new mouse for my computer. A shop was located about four blocks from Hotel Escurial, and the task was quickly done.

My exploration of Metz was complete, for now. Dinner followed, being a simple toasted bagel with cream cheese and minced onion-at a small, cozy place named simply “The Coffee Shop”. It was a fitting end to a day devoted to a blend of simplicity and grandeur.