To Saarburg

July 24, 2024

Another day of meandering along the Moselle. This will be our last day along the Moselle. Our next river is the Saar.

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If you are ever in Bernkastel-Kues, we highly recommend the Burgblick Hotel. We had a fantastic meal on their restaurant patio last night, with the warmth of the evening summer sun illuminating the deep greens of the vineyards and views of the castle perched high on a precipice above. It was a magical evening together. What was especially memorable was how quiet and peaceful it all was.

Their breakfast spread was equally spectacular, and after our fill, we pushed off around 8:30 this morning for our ride to Saarburg.

Just one part of the breakfast spread. Sue helping herself at the muesli station.

One last parting shot of Bernkastel-Kues.

We knew before riding today that the weather forecast predicted showers at some point in the day. So, we put the rain gear at the top of the panniers just in case. The extreme heat we have had during the first two days of the tour have subsided, and we have been enjoying very comfortable temperatures since leaving Koblenz.

Might as well throw one of me in there too.

Today was another day of car-free cycle paths and hugging the Moselle, with vineyards cloaking the hills in every direction. It's actually astounding, really. We've been cycling for the past four days through a couple hundred kilometers of this. I suppose when you're producing and exporting Riesling wine around the world to millions of people, you might expect this kind of thing.

As we approached Trier, the clouds began to build and the showers that were predicted arrived. We took refuge at a riverside campground cafe, had a coke and waited out the showers before pressing on again.

Just by the riverside at the cafe campground we are hunkered down at. You can see from the sign that we're still a ways out from Trier.

When researching this trip, I had it in my calculations that from Bernkastel-Kues to Saarburg was about a 70km day. Turns out, upon closer inspection, this was closer to 90km. So, there was some murmuring from one part of the team about this error. Ooops.

Approaching Trier after taking cover under a noisy highway underpass from the rain.

The sky became more and more threatening as we neared Trier.

Here, we're still about 10 kms from Trier and we both have our rain gear on. Pannier covers on.

The ride into Trier, like riding into all big cities, was not the most pleasant. There were many detours to negotiate and we were thrown into large industrial areas on our final approach to the city. The quality of the cycle path surfaces also deteriorated, and we bumped along poor surfaces into the city.

We took a break in Trier, and that's when the heavens opened up. The skies darkened and large purple clouds unleashed sheets of rain. We took cover under a narrow eave that scarcely provided any cover as the wind whipped and threw rain at us from every direction. We might as well have been standing out in the open. So, we scurried around the corner under the next shelter which happened to be the entrance to a couple of businesses, and an apartment. An old lady approached to get into her apartment as we huddled there and she murmured disapprovingly in German and tsk-tsked us for standing there and getting the entrance tiles all wet as if we were standing on her own kitchen floor. I replied back with a sheepish 'Entschuldigung', and she gave us a dismissive wave as she unlocked the door and entered the building.

So, with the horrible weather continuing, we made a decision to take the train the final 23 kms to Saarburg. Luckily for us, the Hauptbahnhof was just around the corner, and within the hour we were on the 18 minute train ride to Saarburg. A good choice it was too. It rained so hard along the journey that you could hear the rain bouncing off of the top of the train as we travelled along.

As we arrived in Saarburg, the sky cleared and the sun came out, and we rode the short distance to our hotel Wirthaus Zum Pfedermarkt. We did our usual thing, got cleaned up and headed out to explore this quaint town. More to come about Saarburg tomorrow.

Today's ride: 72 km (45 miles)
Total: 352 km (219 miles)

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