Day 13: Yutz, France to Grevenmacher, Luxemburg: One day, three countries

August 3, 2015

Brigitte started us off again this morning with an omelet and lots of coffee. This was a very considerate accommodation to our (my) preferences. In Germany, I do not expect to see any more omelets. Last night we had a discussion of what we like and don't like, with me naming some of the frightening French favourites: cassoulet, kidneys, and cow udders. Brigitte and Roland mostly liked the weird stuff, but did draw the line at udders. ( tongue is ok).

The bike path is right at the end of Brigitte and Roland's street, so it was easy to get on it. It was also easy to stay on it, because contrary to anything we may have said before, it is 100 percent perfect all the way!

Unlike some of our days starting out, today was full sun and very hot. We ran out of water just at the end, having drunk at least three litres each.

Here we are back at the nuclear plant. Our angle puts it into startk contrast with a much more pleasing church.

This is the region where Luxemburg, France, and Germany meet. We passed through Perl, Germany today, but are sleeping in Grevenmacher, Luxemburg!

Still in France, here is a stark example of how hard it is to get enough coffee to wash down your croissant. The little cup on the left is the "large".

The French government is broke, and has delivered big cuts to community budgets. The communities say they are dying, and are protesting with black "arm bands" on their town names at the entrance to town.

The black arm bands at the town entrance are not to be confused with the town beig crossed out, when you leave.

At the entrance to France (though we were leaving) is a welcome for Santiago de compostella pilgrims, showing some of the pilgrimage routes in the area. We are still thinking about doing this next year, but are very leery of leaving bicycle only paths and going on road.

As we proceeded down the Moselle, some of its famous features began to appear. That is mostly vines and more vines, climbing the cliffs beside the river in terraces. The grapes are nowhere near ready, so there will be no tasting. We will have to wait for Italy for that.

We stuck mostly to the right bank of the river, and were glad because a big road seemed to run on the left bank for quite a distance. This is the region of the three nations, with Luxemburg joining France and Germany. At Shengen, Luxemburg the agreement that did away with border controls in the (basically) EU was signed, on a boat in the middle of the river, which otherwise forms the boundaries. As we passed Shengen (on the other side of the river) we spared a glance for the Europe centre there where we had whiled away an afternoon last year. Now we are old hands, and just blew past.

We stopped for lunch at a bench and found that our SIM could not find any service providers. Not that it was unable to connect to somebody, but rather it found nobody. It seems strange that in the conceptual heart of Europe no company is seemingly maintaining cell service!

Wow, we are really here. Look at those famous (to us) places!

The Shengen centre about the Shengen Agreement, across the river in Luxemburg.

Our mapping showed us a lot of camping in the 15-20 km before Grevenmacher, but what we found was km after km of spread out trailers, not the beautiful combination of shower block, restaurant, little store, and indoor play room that we have come to expect in this part of the world. So we pushed on to the municipal camping at Grevenmacher. We had been here last year, in the rain, when they had stashed us (and our tent) in the beer tent for safe keeping. When we rolled into the place, we remembered it, if a little vaguely. But the man behind the desk remembered us well. What's more he looked up our registration from last year, and we did not have to fill in anything this time. Wow, we are getting known along the Moselle!

This place has shower block, play room, ice cream sales, restaurant, and baker that comes in the morning, plus a huge pool. We put our tent far away from the pool, which on this very hot day had hundreds of frolicking and loud people. No, the Grampies are sitting quietly in a back corner, our laundry drying well on a line strung between bikes, and ready for our early bedtime. There is rain forecast for tomorrow morning, so we are planning to get up early, and beat it to the punch!

The perfect bike path, in this case, shaded too

We saw this little Renault electric introduced last year. This is the only one we have seen since, so maybe they were not a hit

Here the bike way heads temporarily up into the hot vines

Great spot for the night, in Grevenmacher, Luxemburg

Today's ride: 64 km (40 miles)
Total: 601 km (373 miles)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	0
Comment on this entry	Comment	0