Sarreguemines, France . Saareburg, Trier, Germany. Luxmbourg. Metz, France.
Bonjour and Guten Tag from France, Germany and Luxembourg.
Summer is here well and truly. For these first three weeks of July the temperature has been around 30 plus degrees as we went through a heatwave with a few thunderstorms thrown in. The day stretches to 10pm so it is hot for a long time with no Fremantle doctor to give a breeze. My summer experiences in England lulled me into a different idea of summer in France and Germany. I was even thinking of joining the big mammas over here and wearing a bikini!!
We left the Canal Marne au Rhine and turned up the Canal des Houillieres to the Sarre River. This canal has a lot of huge freshwater lakes right along side with holiday camps with canoes, pedal boats and yachts, even a sand beach for swimming. It was wonderful to be able to stop for a swim in Lake Mittersheim during the heat of the day.
At Mittersheim we used our electric bicycles to visit Fenestrange, an old walled town about 8 k away from the canal. On the way we passed these 100 year statues tucked into the forest.
It was market day so we bought lovely cherries and apricots, cheese and bread for lunch. Thank goodness I had the electic bike or I would never have made it up the hills with my bad knee.
Further along the canal we came to Sarreguemines which is still in France but very close to the German border.
Port in Sarreguemines.
While we were there we caught a local train to a town called Bitche 30k away where we had read there was a large Maginot Line Fort. Once we got there we found out that the Simserhof Fort was actually 8 k out so we managed to find a taxi to take us out to the fort. We were given their card to phone when we wanted to come back. The tour of the fort was fantastic 876 men lived and worked there protecting the border in a line of forts every 30 kilometres or so from Strasbourg on the Rhine to Belgium. First we saw a film and as we were the only english speaking people there we had the auditorium to ourselves then went on a little train along 1600 metres of tunnels 30 metres underground with a wealth of special effects to bring to life the atmosphere of life during the WW2.
Up on the surface we phoned for the taxi and then the fun started. What they had not told us was that the taxi doubled as the local passenger transportation ambulance and it and the only English speaking person had been called away. With no way of getting back except walking off we went! With my trusty walking stick on show we tried hitching and eventually a wonderful couple picked us up. Catherine could speak a little English and with a bit of explanation we were off to the railway station. Alas! the last train had left!! However no worries they offered to take us back to the boat and had drinks with us before heading back to Bitche. They said no one would believe their day, they had been out to another town to look at tiles for their bathroom and ended up taking some stranded Aussies back to their boat.
Along the canal we passed gun emplacements which were part of the maginot line.
We left France for Germany and travelled down the narrow upper reach of the Sarre River.
The next stop was Sarrebruken our first German town. The town had a large Italian and Turkish population as well as French and German. At last we were able to get a good cappuchino. We searched the town for an English German dictionary but no sucess so a frantic text to Mary in Australia for a quick german lesson and we launched into the Sarre River using our best Guten Tags to ask the lock keeper to open the locks.
The Sarre River which quickly changed from a quiet, narrow upper reach to passing by large quarries and metal recycling plants, huge barges and pleasure boats then made its way through steep hilly wine country.
Saareburg, a beautiful town with a castle was our next stop, it is a white wine area of the Saare valley.
The vines here are grown up the sides of the hills and the slopes are very steep up to 70 degrees. One of the labels from here we have says Irscher Sonnenberg Hochewachs Reisling, the only thing we understand is the reisling but the taste is fantastic.
We moored in a private yachtclub which had friendly people and a nice bar and beer garden and
stayed for a week taking side trips to other towns in Germany and Luxembourg. We cycled to the next little village where there was a festival to promote the wine of the area and joined in eating sauerkraut and sausages, drinking and dancing as well as having a go on the long german horns a bit like blowing a didgeridoo.
We also met an Paul, an English guy who runs tours from Saarburg. He took us over to Luxembourg city for the day in his car and we called into Nennig in Germany on the way back to see the wonderful Roman mosaic. It seems weird popping over to another country for the day.
We visited Trier/Treves which was a large city in the Roman times and is the oldest city in Germany. It has a fantastic amphitheatre from Roman times, ruins of roman baths and a marvellous entrygate to the city.
From here we travelled up to the junction of the Moselle River and turned back towards France, passing lots of vineyards on both sides of the river sampling as we went along with Luxembourg on one side and Germany on the other.
We stopped in Luxembourg countryside for a couple of days at a large yacht club then travelled back up the Moselle into France through 3 countries in 20 minutes.
The locks on the Moselle are huge and so are the barges travelling along, some are 200 metres long. We made the mistake of moving over too far for one and the wash got us bogged. There were a lot of swear words (English ones)and after much trying to push ourselves off a very nice dutch bargeman threw us a line and towed us off the mud.
Once back in France it was castle country again the Duke of Lorraine's castle was alongside the Moselle
and we rode to see Chateau Malbrouck which has been beautifully restored inside and out by the French Government, we had previously seen it on Global Village. Our bikes are going great and we use them to get to villages away from the canal and surprise quite a few people as we zip along. We havn’t seen any other electric bikes over here.
We stopped at Metz which must be the stained glass capital of Europe. They have the lights turned on in every church and government building so the town is quite a show at night. In the Cathedral there is a beautiful modern stained glass window by Chagall.
____________________________________________________________
