Luxembourg: Our Coach Driver Michael Kurt Tells His Story
Text: EUROBUS
The most beautiful route in Switzerland? For Michael Kurt it is clearly the A8 in the Bernese Oberland, between Bern and Interlaken – it brings back childhood memories for the EUROBUS tour guide. Michael originally trained as a farmer, completed a commercial apprenticeship and worked as a lorry driver for Planzer. That is how he came to the profession of coach driver. By now he has turned his passion for IT into his main job and travels for EUROBUS at the weekend.
As a part-time driver, Michael mainly takes on day trips. Driving a coach is like a hobby for him: alongside his main job in IT, at the weekend he keeps discovering new places as a coach driver that he has never seen before. Schengen, for example, which as a rule is only known for the Schengen Agreement, Michael tells us. The little town is on the programme of a multi-day trip to Luxembourg – the trip he names when I ask him about his favourite journey.
“It was really impressive how much passion the young people bring to their music.”
That was last year, over Whitsun 2022, when Michael accompanied a group of young people from a Basel music school to the “European Youth Musical Festival” in Luxembourg. The pupils are picked up in Reinach (BL) in the morning, then the journey goes via Haut-Koenigsbourg to Schengen, where the group arrives in the early afternoon and checks in at the youth hostel. The opening ceremony takes place the same evening in Esch-sur-Alzette. Over the next two days there are concerts in Käerjeng, Villerupt and Differdange, where the closing ceremony also takes place. Michael attends one or two of the concerts as well. It is impressive how well the youngsters play and how much passion they bring to the music, he reports. If he could name one thing not to be missed at this festival? Michael doesn't hesitate long with this question either: the closing concert! The city of Luxembourg has its charms too, although looking for a parking space can be very tiresome. Otherwise he remembers the trip only positively: the young people – all between 15 and 16 years old – were always punctual, and there was a very special atmosphere.
“Driving takes a lot of concentration – and safety matters to me.”
I fish for coach driver travel tips and want to know what else there is to see in Luxembourg. Michael recalls a former iron ore mine with an old steam train in Pétange. It is definitely worth a visit, he says. He talks about everyday life as a coach driver: when he arrives at the destination, the first thing he treats himself to is a power nap to recharge his batteries. Driving requires a lot of concentration – he enjoys a chat now and then, but safety matters more to him. He prefers to use the breaks to get talking to the travellers. His loveliest experience as a coach driver so far: receiving a thank-you card from a group – moments like that are simply very special. The most nerve-racking city for coach drivers? For Michael it is Milan: “The signage is complicated, the traffic chaotic – and it is teeming with Vespas.”
When he is not out and about as a driver for EUROBUS, he likes to travel by car, and he prefers to spend his holidays on a houseboat in France, drifting along the river – that is the plan for this summer. He sometimes also uses his expertise as a coach driver to gain entirely new experiences; this year, for example, he applied to be a hill driver at the Gurten Festival in Bern. “The hill drivers chauffeur the artists and their staff up the Gurten. This service runs around the clock in two shifts,” Michael explains. What is special about it is that you are among the first to welcome the band and crew members after their arrival at the airport. Requirements for this job include a category D1 licence along with a CZV (professional driver competence) certificate. “I thought to myself: I'll just give it a go and apply,” he says, adding: “I got the job straight away!”