Day 6, 27 5 2013, Metz to Luxembourg
We woke up to a beautiful clear morning that transformed Metz. The cafes were open and people were in the streets.
We rode around for a while checking out the sites before heading off to find the Moselle cycle path. This follows the river and a canal as far as the town of Thionville. The path is of very high quality and very flat. The path is on the east side of the river and the west side is heavily industrialised. There are numerous huge canal barges and industrial installations of various sorts.
Thionville is a beautiful town, full of interlinked plazas, and today, full of people and outdoor cafes.
From there we rode the last 20km up into Luxembourg.
When we crossed into the Duchy things changed. There was a park and ride parking area just inside the border to cope with French itinerant workers, and four large service stations, as fuel is cheaper in Luxembourg. Within a kilometer or so we were riding on a bike lane beside the road all the way into Luxembourg city. Within the city the bicycle infrastructure is everywhere, lanes, roadmarking and signage.
We rode around for a while then found the tourist information place. It was around 4.00pm and we had decided to stay as the city looked great and the time was getting on. The tourist information man told us that the town was completely full due to the Games Of The Small Countries Of Europe and we would not find a hotel room. It really was hard to take this seriously. Anway, Roz approached a kiosk for the games and the people there told her that the games, not surprisingly were not that big, and perhaps there was some accommodation around the railway station. We decided that we should go there and either book or find a train to Saarbrucken. Roz approached a hotel, found a room and that was that. The room cost much more than we usually spend, but we have been well below our expected expenditure for the last four days, so it was not a problem.
We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the city and fell in love. It is very crisp and clean, and there are an interesting range of buildings and beautiful squares full of people and life, and a lot of history. We had a great evening and an excellent, surprisingly inexpensive, German-style meal in the trendy Grund area.
There is a bit of a contrast with the sort of shabby appearance of Metz, where it seems that someone is employed to go around at night with a chain and ensure that the corners are knocked off the stone work, and paint removed from the window frames.
Despite numerous signs in Metz asking people to curb their dogs, there were a large number of very large dog turds right in the middle of the footpaths. It seems that if your dog has balls, he will take a dump where ever he pleases.
73Km and a top day.
Roz says:
7 yesterday but 27 degrees today, whoopee.
Sun and sausages, David is very happy.
Luxemburgers have very clean cars and lots of sports coupes!
No map today. I cannot track the bike path and lost the GPS file entirely.