To Trier: A great day and we reach the Moselle

September 11, 2017

It was raining when we were having breakfast so we waited a while until it had stopped. We searched out our warm gloves put jerseys on under our coats and set out much warmer than we had been yesterday. A storm had destroyed part of the track a couple of weeks ago so we had to start on the road. It wasn't too bad and we soon reached a little village where there was a footbridge across the Sarr. This put us on the proper route. It was unsealed, up and down and because of last night's rain full of puddles. All the rocks around here are red so it wasn't long before our bikes were covered in red mud. It is amazing how you go from such remote feeling country suddenly to industry. We came to a massive red stone quarry, crossed a big bridge and were on a smooth sealed path leading us to Saarburg. This is a really nice little town. There is a riverside port with tourist boats doing a good trade then a high ridge, this is punctured by a tunnel and you whizz through this and are in the town proper. It was alive and busy and we got our morning coffee.

Back through the tunnel and we were on the riverbank once more but things had changed. Somewhat to our surprise we were in vineyard country. The slopes away from the river are around 45 degrees and the vineyards reminded me of solar panels, however they work them we had no idea, it is certainly far to steep for a tractor and we saw none of the winches we had seen previously on the Moselle. They all looked well tended but however the grapes will ripen in this weather I don't know. As we went along we saw some really massive barges loaded with coal going up the river no doubt to Volklingen near Saarbrucken where the huge steel works are. The locks in this area are very very deep - I haven't seen any like this before

The end of our trip down the Saar was at its confluence with the Moselle and we were onto the Moselle Radweg. It really has been a very good journey from Strasbourg and finding our way has not been difficult - there is a lot of interest and variety in it and we were able to find accommodation along the way without having to do any very long days (good old booking.com)

Now on the Moselle things were very easy and the 10km to Trier went in a flash. Trier was founded by the Celts then conquered by the Russians in the 1st century BC. There are a number of Roman remains that the residents are justly proud of - the most important being the Porta Nigra which is the Roman city gate dating from the 2nd century AD which sits at the end of the lovely pedestrian street

There is a wurst and bier house near our hotel so we will go out there for dinner soon.