As well as the hotel being very close to the main square it was also very close to the river so a nice easy start to the day and it continued like that for the whole day – just lovely pleasant cycling.
The hardest part of today was making sure I didn’t run over any lizzards – it was grey first thing but when the sun got up later on in the day there was loads of lizzards scurrying across the path and some of them were tiny, not much more than an inch long – as far as I’m aware I managed to avoid them all.
The other advantage to this route is there were a number of campsites nearby and there was signs to them from the cycle path. I had a campsite in mind for the end of the day but it was slightly off route and it was big with a pool with slides and a park, which is great if you’ve got kids but not what I was really looking for. Luckily as came into Fontenoy-le-Chateau there was a sign for a wee campsite, only 2km away but 2km uphill – good decision though – lovely little campsite, great toasty warm showers – only cost £10.60 including the tin of coke that I’d bought and had a lovely wee decked area with a bar and restaurant and one of the campers I’d met at the Metz campsite 2 nights ago, and had also stayed in Nancy the night before was there – he had obviously cycled significantly faster than me as already had his tent up and was on to his 2nd beer. Another cyclist who I’d passed earlier also arrived and the 3 of us had a lovely evening and I got some tips for the next day.
Conscious of time and not able to do the long days I used to and also to stop giving myself a hard time about how far or not I have travelled I have rejigged my route. I have also changed my route so that it includes The Saint Bernard Pass – the Via Francigena walking route takes in the The Saint Bernard Pass – the Eurovolo 5 cycling route takes in a pass further to the east – based on my hill fitness at the moment it is debatable if I can cycle up either pass but I have opted to give the Saint Bernard Pass a go as I’d like to see the museum near the top. So I have abandoned the EV5 at the present time and taking a more direct route to Lucca where I’m meeting my Dad for a few days on the 13th of September.
Leaving Luxembourg – a good network of paths south but largely not signed so lots of stop starts to check the map so slow progress despite being on mostly easy ground and to be honest a bit of a pain in the ass at times. Then I finally met The Moselle River and the well marked V50 / La Voie Bleue route – well mostly well signed until I missed a junction somewhere and the only sign was along the lines of “peas in season this way”.
As well as well marked it was lovely easy cycling and I was starting to see more cycle tourists including 2 Danish girls on there first bike tour and had cycled from Denmark, using river and canal routes and generally as flat as possible – why didn’t think of that?
The “Loch Ness Monster”
A few views along the River, including The Loch Ness Monster!
I hadn’t planned on stopping at Metz but there was campsite right on the bank of the river – I just needed to cross the bridge to the other side and at 3.30 I stopped for the day and pitched my tent along with a number of other tourers – 2 girls from Germany on their first bike tour who had just arrived by train and were going to cycle home and a German fellow who was cycling from Luxembourg to Lyon, amongst others – good to know I’m not the only nutter about.
View From The Campsite
Tent up and showered and wasn’t sure if I could be bothered going for a wander around the town but it was only 5pm and very glad I did – Metz is a lovely city with a nice atmosphere and felt quite compact and easy to see lots of stuff to and I went a bit trigger happy taking photos. The Cathedral was beautiful – grey bricked high vaulted ceiling that you would expect it to make it feel cold but had a nice warm air to it that I can only put down to the lovely glow coming from the many stained glass windows. There was also a live gig somewhere which I could listen to from the campsite and by time I got tucked into my sleeping bag a huge fireworks display went off – I couldn’t see them but I could certainly hear them and some of the dogs on the campsite and the local heron didn’t seem too happy about it.
Abandoned Water Tower Yhe Railway Station
Next morning I was the first of the cyclists up and away, partly because I don’t tend to eat breakfast until I’ve got a few miles done. I remembered that I hadn’t paid – I thought it strange that that they asked you to pay when you leave and what if walkers and cyclists did a runner?? – cars, caravans etc can’t because they need the barrier raised – not that I was planning on doing a runner but Clipboard Guy made sure I didn’t – if you’ve ever watched the film Chalet Girl you’ll know what I mean. Another good campsite and only cost £10.98 for the night.
Continuing along Moselle – zigzaging across river at various points. Dry when I left the campsite but soon it began to drizzle – jacket on / jacket off kinda of morning and I did wonder what possessed me to go with lightweight water resistant rather than waterproof but as I never zipped it up it wasn’t going to keep me dry anyway.
At some point I caught up with John, a cyclist from the Netherlands – he had started in the south of the Netherlands and was aiming for Lyon – we cycled together for a couple of hours and blethered about the usual stuff: family, work, cycle tours, etc. We seemed to be a similar pace on the flat, which we were most of the time, but when the canal towpath came to a road which it did quite frequently there was often a short but slightly steep up to get to the road, combined with making sure there were no cars coming, and often combined with a quick left or right turn or vice versa if the tow path changed from one bank of the river to the other – it quickly became apparent that John was much more adept at this than me, especially when the path took a sharp right turn and uphill, pretty much turning back on itself and also becoming narrower – John went up it no bother at all while I ended up getting off the bike and pushing Phil up – I learnt a new French word while watching the Tour de France on ITV4 (how am going to be able to watch it next year?? but that’s going off topic) – the word is “Souplesse” which is kind of how well someone handles the bike – it definitely doesn’t describe me.
Near a town called Epinal John continued south along the bike route while I made a detour to find food – at this point I checked the map to see there was a message from Karen saying the tracker wasn’t working – for some reason the record button seems to have been un-ticked so there is a very straight line between Metz and Epinal making it look like I’ve jumped on a train – I didn’t!
About 10k outside the city of Nancy and still on the Moselle River, there must have been a recent insect hatching – there was a solid cloud of wee beasties for about a kilometer and then intermittent clouds of them after that – I litterally cycled with my head down so that my face wasn’t getting covered in beasties – they weren’t big but it sounded like rain as hit they off my helmet – luckily they didn’t seem to be of the stinging variety – I was very surprised when took my helmet off, that it wasn’t covered in a coating of dead beasties.
I was forced to stop about a kilometer before I got to the wee hotel in Nancy I’d booked for the night I could smell waffles or doughnuts – certainly something sugary and tasty and just round the corner there was a stall, selling waffles and icecream and it would have been rude not to….
I couldn’t get into the hotel before 4pm – it was just little and not manned all the time. It was just off the main “Stanislas” square in Nancy so I abandoned Phil and all my belongings and jumped on the touristic choo choo train that was about to depart. I did a similar train trip in Luxembourg and it was geared for children and adults and was fun and interesting – the one in Nancy was geared for adults and I felt overloaded with too much information and have to confess to nodding off a few times – it did give me a chance to get my bearings though.
At 4pm I went to the hotel to get checked in and there were 2 older ladies from Belgium also waiting to get in but the door was locked – I tried phoning and we could hear it ringing but nobody picked up – I understood enough of the message in that it was advising us to phone a different number but despite listening to the message 3 times my french wasn’t quick enough to get the whole number so I emailed instead and a fellow on a bike appeared not much later to let us in and he was lovely and got everyone’s room sorted – mine was pokey with a tiny wee shower room but was clean tidy and at £43 and 2 minutes walk from the square it was perfect for me and Phil was locked up safely downstairs (although I’m not sure being chained up to the firecescape ladder ticked health & safety box but I was happy).
Glad I took the time to see Nancy – interesting city with great architecture but felt a bit more spread out than Metz and didn’t have the same vibe. It did have some lovely gardens though and I found a wee bar in the castle gate wall playing jazz music. If I had to choose one, I’d definitely go back to Metz.
Poured with rain during the night and at some point the electric cut out but it didn’t affect my stay and legs were fresh and ready for the next bit of bike ride.
So me and Phil are packed and ready to head off tomorrow after breakfast. Fab hostel and glad I stayed the extra night – a little more expensive but breakfast included / sneaky lunch as well.
I’d definitely reccomend Luxembourg as a city to visit but get your steps up in preparation – the city is built on a rocky outcrop so lots of winding up (and down) roads and paths – you can see the city by choo choo (which I did) or hop-on-hop-off bus but the best way to see it is on foot and I think I walked for miles yesterday. Bring a guide book with you though – although most people speak English there is very little written information and in the only 2 souvenir shops that sold guide books they had them in a variety of languages but not English – they did sell teddies though.
A random selection of the many photos I took yesterday.
Vianden Castle was on my list of places to visit – I hadn’t done my research very well – in my haste to get to Luxembourg City though I had kind of bypassed the castle – the castle is about 55km north of the city – would I have changed my route south if I’d known this – maybe aye – maybe no – but I definitely wasn’t cycling back north to go and see it – I took the train and bus. If you are visiting Luxembourg and plan to visit Vianden check where your nearest train station is – don’t assume it is Luxembourg (2.3km + extra for getting lost) from the hostel I’m staying at – when I could have got the train from Pfaffenthal (only 800m away) – there was a plus side to this though – I got to travel over the viaduct that I’d been taking photos of yesterday which was fab.
Public transport (unless you want to go 1st class) is FREE in Luxembourg – even for tourists!! which is just amazing.
The train was fantastic. The busses good when they came but it seems to be a bit hit or miss whether they will arrive or not but it was definitely worth the effort to get to Vianden and see the castle. When you get to the castle make sure you go in the shop first and continue into the information centre and film – from outside it’s not well advertised which is a shame and I think a lot of folks miss it – there is loads of interesting information and the film, which is in English, is really good – I only found it because I good hear the voice over from the film.
On the return journey I got off at the nearer train station and took the funicular UP to street level and then came back down again to take the lift DOWN to the correct street level – all for research of course but good fun.
Not today but I’ve been lucky enough to see a couple of red squirrels – I thought they looked bigger and darker than our Scottish ones but according to Google they are the same species and no noticeable difference in size or colour.
I’ve been so lucky with the weather so far – it did pour last night but after I got to the hostel and same today but while I was on the bus but all good for me – not so much for my room mate who was away out to enloy the nightlife in the city and had to return to get a dry change of clothes.
Loads of restaurants in the city but I ate at the hostel restaurant – less than €17 for soup; salad, huge plate of spag bol that I couldn’t finish and a glass of wine. Jeanne (who I’d just met) and I both got free pudding as well. Jeanne was a really interesting lady from Portugal and among other things told me about the bats who protect the old books in the libraries !
Right off to bed – back to camping for the next wee while so going to make the most of a comfy bed. Night all.
I saw this sign on the approach to Roche de la Ardenne.
Now I’d already decided I was stopping here for the night as the next campsite was over the otherside of the hill and a good couple of hours cycling away. Although I’d like to see wolves it was not something I’d thought about when I knew my route was taking me through Belgium – and another reason for me not to travel any further that day. As it turns out I was not cycling through Parc a Gibier – Parc a Gibier is a small wildlife park that has 5 or 6 wolves in it so nothing to worry about. However something made me look up wolves in Belgium (after I’d arrived in Luxembourg) and it transpires that there are some wild wolves – not many but thought to be 15 to 20 wolves in 2 packs – I didn’t see any!
I set off this morning (27th August) with the hope of crossing from Belgium into Luxembourg and making it to Luxembourg City – 71 miles away but a couple of big hills on route – I’ve loved my time in Belgium and definitely want to come back but it has been brutal at times pushing Phil up some of the hills – nothing big but hard work all the same. I wasn’t keen to book accomodation in case I didn’t make it. I left the campsite at 7.30 – a little chilly but the forecasted rain had not appeared so all good.
Cycling through mixed native woodland in the Des Deux Ourthes Natural Park opening out into minature alpine-like pastures and the sun comes out with. Cows in the fields and I pass a goat farm.
Super quiet roads again and although there’s a lot of uphill it’s a nice easy gradient (so far). Time wise I’m doing well and mid afternoon I book a room for 2 nights in the Luxembourg City Youth Hostel. I’m not sure exactly when I passed from Belgium into Luxembourg – the disadvantage of quite roads and cycle tracks is there no signs welcoming you to a new country.
I do start to notice the “L” on number plates though and when I do have to join a road with traffic the cars seem to be bigger and flashier than in Belgium and some of them are being driven like the boy racers back home. Mostly though it is still a good network of quiet paths and roads.
For most of today I’ve not needed to check the map – the signs have been enough to follow but about 10k from the city centre I plug the hostel address into Komoot (kind of the cycling equivalent of Google Maps) – this mostly works until I’m nearly at the hostel and I end up doing a bit of tooing and froing and then minus panniers I carry Phil down a flight of stairs and then run back up to get the panniers. At last Komoot says “I have arrived” – I haven’t!!! Fantastic day on the bike and only had to push Phil up one steep section but I’ve been on the road for nearly 12 hours and I’m grubby and tired and just want to get to the hostel – I enter the hostel details into Google Maps this and get to the right place 2nd time round – but in the process of checking details realise that I’ve arsed big style – I’m not booked in until the following night! I decided playing dumb was the best approach – luckily all got sorted and I got a bed for the night and Luxembourg City looks amazing so I’m going to stay 3 nights and have 2 days having a wander round while Phil is safely locked up in the basement bicycle garage.
Between leaving Brussels and arriving in Luxembourg City –
I’ve nearly knocked over a workman (his fault and not mine as he walked out from behind a park van).
I’ve been rescued by 3 cycling angels when the very good cycle bath disappeared amongst roadworks and the bicycle diversion signs seemed to be pointed in the direction of oncoming busy – this was indeed the way to go on a strip of new tarmac with the cars passing on either side but I was very pleased to be playing follow the leader with these 3 ladies.
I’ve stayed at 2 more campsites – one just outside the town of Dinant on the banks of River Meuse and I got to see the geese flying low overhead as the sun went down and I saw another kingfisher. The other campsite was at the Camping Le Vieux Moulin – just outside the town of La Roche en Ardenne. Both these towns I’d like to come back and visit for longer and a number of others I’ve passed through. A common theme with Belguim campsite toilets don’t supply toilet paper!! The 2nd of these campsites was lovely and quiet – the first one not so and I was woken by the church bell chiming during the night, trains running on the lines on the opposite side of the river and cockerels crowing on the opposite bank of the river – who new that the noise of cock-a-doodle-doo could carry so far?? – it’s still a good campsite and if you are in a tent bring earplugs.
I’ve had amazing weather – the forecasted rain never came to much and I only got little bit wet.
I came through the 690m long Tunnel de Hobschied a few km north of Luxembourg City – and old railway tunnel – on the approach there was a misty will-o-the-wisp affect and it became bitterly cold – I was glad the tunnel was (dimly) lit and I didn’t need to search for my lights. It’s an amazing structure but I was glad to be back in the sunshine at the other side.
So finally at hostel and me and Phil still seem to be in one piece – I’m scrubbed up but Phil is very dusty, especially from the canal tow paths – Phil however is staying that way as I reckon there is less chance of someone nicking him.
