Dodging thunderstorms - welcome to Luxembourg! - Riding In My Grandfather's WW1 Footsteps

June 24, 2016

Dodging thunderstorms - welcome to Luxembourg!

Well, as much as we don't like our reliance on access to the internet to dictate the direction of our day, we had to give in on this today. After no internet for several days, we finally had a window of time at the campground in Trier this morning where the internet was working. So, we took some time to get some narrative entered to the journal and settled on a later start.

We decided to move on from Trier as the humidity and heat were making it difficult to want to deal with crowds or sightseeing. We had a good wander last evening and felt that it was time to move on.

After leaving Trier, we were able to take refuge from a downpour and heavy thunder storms in a bakery. It was a dramatic storm, but sadly it did not improve the weather. We will carry on and see how far we can get.

Spent some time at the border of Luxembourg and Germany in a flagship tourist office promoting the region. We learned much about the area and had trouble making the helpful woman understand that we were on a bike and not interested in sights "up, up, up" hills or 100 km away. She couldn't fathom the nature of our journey which would just touch on Luxembourg and follow rivers to Aachen and Maastricht. Nonetheless, we appreciated our time there.

At the confluence of the Mosel and Sauer Rivers we left the Mosel to head along the Sauer. We have a GPS track and maps for our journey but are not sure of where we will end up - so that is pretty usual for us.

The Sauer is a pretty river with lush vegetation and very small towns dotted along the way. We are missing the convenient infrastructure of the Mosel (shops, cafes etc) but we are enjoying the quiet paved paths that take us on our way.

We can feel and see the return of heavy storms and are considering finding accommodation early. We aren't seeing "zimmer" signs in the windows or the evidence of hotels. We found a hotel which was pretty unhelpful. We're not sure if they had no vacancy or just not interested. If the campsite we see ahead on the Garmin doesn't work out, we may have to wild camp.

Thankfully we found a campsite with space and he also had some rooms above the restaurant, so we opted for comfort from the storm. And, we are very glad we did as it indeed did rain very heavily in the evening and through the night, as well as much thunder.

We highly recommend this campground directly on the Mosel at Trier. A welcome respite from the heat and congestion of the city.

This whimsical fountain in Igel by the renowned column featured various creatures like this one at the spouts.

The Igeler Saule (Igel Column) is a Unesco World Heritage site. It is an originally preserved Roman column depicting with elaborate reliefs the importance of textile making. It is a 23 metre tall obelisk erected in the 3rd century. Interestingly it survived over the centuries since the perception of the images was that they were Christian - it wasn't until the 16th century that the images were understood.

The beginning of the rain....and more to come.

Strawberry cake and banana cake (literally cake with a banana on top) to wait out the storm.

In trying to get in to Luxembourg, we hit a dead end, so Barry struck out on his own!

Our first view of Luxembourg - the town of Wasserbillig on the Moselle (at the mouth of the Sauer) - very pretty.

Barry may have struck out on his own briefly, but he did come back...

Leaving the Mosel, we are embarking on a new route, Sauer Weg.

The bridge over the Sauer River (Mosel in the background) to Luxembourg.

The deluxe German-Luxembourg tourist office.

Already along the Sauer, we are seeing livestock and farms - no vineyards. This field was like a nursery - many types of cattle all with their calves.

Today's ride: 25 km (16 miles)
Total: 262 km (163 miles)

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