Day 7, 28 5 2013, Luxembourg to Saarlouis

We had a quite stunning morning this morning, after a very nice buffet breakfast, German style.  This was a pleasant change from the continental breakfasts we have been eating.

Getting out of Luxembourg city was easy, as the traffic is very bike aware and the signage good.  Within a half hour we were following country roads with bike route markings through beautiful rolling countryside and frequent dense forests. Towards the edge of the Luxembourg plateau we turned to follow a bike route to take us to the Mosselle River, and rode along one of the nicest stretch of bike path we have ever seen.  The path is a rail trail, that is, an obsolete railway line converted into a bike path.  It wound its way around a ridge giving stunning views of the countryside.  Like much of the infrastructure in Luxembourg it is perfectly maintained and of very high quality.

From there we descended again into the Mosselle valley, with views back to the Thionville reactor on the skyline.

The climb out of the valley was hard, and we had a couple more very hard ascents to go get across the Nield River valley to the Saar valley.

We followed some instructions Roz had found on the internet last night.  They were generally excellent and involved a lot of bike routes. Germany has bike routes from just about anywhere to just about anywhere else.

The only problem is, and we remembered it when we encountered it again today, is that the route designers are absolutely convinced that they need to get the route away from regular roads.  So the route winds through farm lanes that are not necessarily bike friendly.  We had slopes today of up to 13%, and sustained at that pitch.  That is seriously hard work.  The message is to do your homework. 

We rolled into SaarLouis following the bike route that avoided the evening traffic.  There in the main square was the Rathaus, and in it was the tourist information office.  The nice man quickly arranged a room for us in a nearby pub and supplied lots of maps, including the bike routes.

Often in France the tourist information is somewhere quirky, perhaps an old church, so you have to hunt for it, and often we have failed to find it.

The country today was quite stunning in all three countries we passed through.  The weather deteriorated in the afternoon and we got caught in a couple of thunder showers, but it didn’t matter.  Apparently it is going to be worse tomorrow.

We paid 67E for accommodation tonight including breakfast, in a very nice hotel.  So that will be the fifth of our seven days so far that we will be under 100E for the day.  On both the other days the bill was around 250E.

So, 87Km for the day, 1600m vertical ascent, and many of those were hard work.

The map won't display correctly, it will only display GPS points and not the track.  Very frustrating.

Roz says                                                                                                                           

Crossed three valleys with steep sides, gorgeous countryside, so green. 

Apple blossom time.  European menhirs of Lorraine are 1993 stones!!!  Bit surprising really.