River Moselle
We left Remich and dropped into the next Port de Plaisance to stock up with diesel at a mere 86.1 cents per litre, the cheapest we have seen in Europe so far, and on the canal side at that! But cheap fuel is one of the well-known claims to fame of Luxembourg. In due course we arrived at the outskirts of Metz and as often happens the hoped-for free moorings, which we had earmarked on our map all turned out to be non-existent, so we headed off into the Port de Plaisance right in the centre. As luck would have it there was plenty of space for us, but we had an interesting time manoeuvring Riccall between the mooring posts to get onto the quay. The 5 mooring posts were set out from the quay by about 8 metres and were intended to be used like finger moorings, in that boats are expected to back up to the quay and tie their bow to one of these posts. We couldn’t do that of course, being way too large, but we did wriggle our way behind all 5 posts and moor up along the quay, taking up all the spaces! The mooring charge at €12 per night didn’t alter thankfully, so we felt we had done quite well out of it.
In the morning, we set off into Metz 'sur les bicyclettes' and what a lovely surprise. We mentioned that we had read that Metz is an astonishing city and it is true – it is absolutely brilliant. Deeply coloured sandstone buildings fill the main square in the centre with a unity we have seldom seen in the towns and cities we have explored so far.
The central Notre Dame cathedral may be higher than all others and magnificent in its way, but still does not surpass Reims cathedral for sheer WOW factor. However, its position within the surrounding buildings make the centre outstanding.
The rest of the city, which has changed hands between Germany and France on a number of occasions, and exhibits influences from both, is fascinating. There are many examples of differences between the architectural preferences of the two cultures: the old station for instance was completely rebuilt on a new site by the Germans in heavy Germanic style during their occupation from 1887 to 1918 to allow for troop movements in the event of war. At the same time the French insisted on building a new government building close by with typical French influences – filigree balconies, charming decoration and so on in their own inimitable style.
In 1918 Metz reverted to French rule and with it the language reverted to French. Then of course in 1940 it was back to German until 1945 when it again reverted to French and Francais. But in fact, much of the older parts of the city date back to the Romans and some remains are left over from that era.
We loved it; the open market, the covered market, the vibrant squares, the open parks, the cathedral, the trompe l’oeil in the main square – a really lovely city. We must go back, if only by car, if we have time.
When we got to Pont-a-Mousson, the first mooring place in our moorings guide, on a pontoon below the town bridge, was non-existent. The pontoon had clearly been removed since the entry in 2007 but perhaps just for the winter as the Moselle can be a very lively river. The Port de Plaisance opposite was impossible for us, so we headed for the third and last option – the wide entrance channel to an old lock onto an unused canal. Here we could see a possibility, so we stopped and waited for several rowing 4s to get out of the way (much to their horror/surprise when they noticed over their shoulders Riccall creeping up towards them) and nosed our way in. The signs recently erected said mooring was limited to 2 hours, and that there was a Port de Plaisance opposite. This we knew we couldn’t use so we decided to play it à la Francais and ignore everything, and made ourselves comfortable! We did a short reconnôitre of the town visiting the obligatory boulangerie for bread and subsequently one of the two massive churches taking our large baguette in with us. As we emerged from the church we were met by a French couple about to enter, who expressed surprise and then tried to explain why - unfortunately the joke was somewhat lost in the translation but eventually we got it - that the church is into selling bread now!!
The next morning the fog on the river was dense and very slow to clear so it wasn’t until 11.30 that it was clear enough for us to contemplate sailing on. Having passed through the only lock where we have understood the reply from the lock keeper (a lady for once) to the announcement of our arrival, Alex, emboldened by this success, asked if we could stop on the lock moorings for lunch. “Mais oui”.
Eventually we got back to Liverdun, which had been our first overnight stop at the beginning of our round trip, at about 4 o’clock. The weather was again fine and sunny so, despite Liverdun being described as an ugly village with an ugly name in an article we had read, we decided to investigate the village for ourselves,.
The lower village perhaps deserved that moniker, but we persevered to the ancient village on the top of the hill, which was well worth the hike up narrow and very steep cobbled streets. The original fortified village was built on the very top of a steep promontory (rather like Luxembourg but on a much smaller scale) and we were delighted by its ancient and very French charm. Liverdun is also the home of the little famous ‘Madeleine’ cakes available throughout France and beyond, though we very much doubt if they all originate there. We did buy some locally produced examples and very good they were too (Alex). Pretty much the same as all the others (Louise)!!
By mid afternoon we were back in our winter moorings in Toul but still with a few missions to achieve by car before autumn truly turns into winter.
The first one had to wait for a day or two, as the day after our return we were welcomed back by other over-winterers and had a barbecue on shore in the warm (later chilly) afternoon air. It was a good idea and we all had a great time, but when the rain started at about 5pm the boules game had to be curtailed and we all shot back to our various boats!
The following day dawned warm and sunny so we took the opportunity to return to Liverdun to investigate the remains of a canal which had been built in the mid 1800s, including a tunnel under the ‘haute ville’ on its promontory. Much of the canal is either still in water, or still evident in a broad swathe of grass alongside the road and the River Moselle. The old canal was still in use until the 1970s and then was disbanded, including the tunnel and the aqueduct which carried it over the Moselle, when the huge locks were built which now control the river.
All of this historical detective work is great fun and gets us into some strange places!
Wednesday, 28 October 2009
Thursday, 22 October 2009
Autumn round trip
Toul, Germany, Luxembourg, Toul: Part Two Germany to France
River Saar, River Moselle
Now we are in Germany. The last of the locks which operated with our French zapper is half a kilometre into Germany and here we handed it in.
The lock keeper was a heavy-set man. Alex said, ‘Bonjour, or should I say guten Morgen?’ Not a glimmer of a smile, just took the zapper and turned on his heel heading back upstairs. Oh dear! Does this herald how things are going to be? We got to Saarbrucken and found the moorings in total disarray as, we learned later, they are being re-developed! It didn’t say that anywhere of course. We stopped at the first available spot (reserved for something else according to our interpretation of the signage – but what?) while we sussed the scene. Alex walked to the official ‘sport boat’ moorings which were full of museum boats, trip boats and hotel boats and no room even for little us.
Later Alex talked to the owner of one of the party boats – Gunter. He is an ex-commercial bargee who now takes party trips of up to 40 on one or both of his restaurant boats. He was very helpful – explaining about the redevelopment and told us we were OK where we were. We went into town looking for a chart of the River Saar in Germany and the River Moselle in Germany which we were lacking. No luck. Gunter lent us a couple of rather ancient, but workable charts, which we photocopied. So kind! We returned the charts with a present of Yorkshire tea and a load of information on hiring narrowboats in England which Gunter has a craving to do to see the English canals.
We wished we were staying longer so we could invite him and his girlfriend for drinks but we felt the need to press on. We asked him to give us a sentence in German that we could use to announce our arrival at each German lock, but as well as doing that he rang the lockkeeper at the next lock to warn him when we would be arriving. So the first lock was fine, and the second one OK, but thereafter it has been decidedly difficult with our lack of German and the lockkeepers’ lack of English or even French (except in one case). So there have been a couple of misunderstandings. The signage is very difficult to interpret even with a dictionary, partly because the kind of words we need on the waterways are not in our dictionary, but mainly because the Germans run all the words into one great long one (like the Welsh), so first you have to decide where one bit might end and the next begin, before you can try to look each bit up separately, then put it all back together again! Added to that, the humour and smiles we are used to in France, Belgium and Holland are definitely lacking here.
When we got to Saarlouis we looked briefly at a 30m floating pontoon but decided to view the other downriver mooring area first – 100m of it supposedly. But it was impossible for us. Intended for peniches at twice our length and shallow and rocky for at least 1.5m from the bank, before enough depth for us, and we have nothing suitable to hold ourselves off with. So we went back up to the pontoon, whereupon the captain of the trip boat River Lady, moored on the next pontoon, gesticulated emphatically that we couldn’t moor there. But our book and the signage on the pontoon indicted that we could. So we did another 360 degree turn, moored up on it anyway and Louise went off to enquire of the captain what the problem was. Apparently, he felt we were too big and heavy for the pontoon (probably right there) but told us we could spend a night on the other empty trip boat pontoon. Phew!
We had a cycle trip round Saarlouis which had the remains of an incredibly intricate fortification system which were interesting, and a cathedral rebuilt in concrete in 1960s style behind its still-standing frontage (18thc) which was just awful. We found ourselves castigating the Germans for this dreadful re-building until we remembered that it was probably us– the Allies – who had caused the destruction in the first place! Oops.
We motored on and entered the jewel in the River Saar’s crown – the Mettlach meander, a 5km hairpin bend where the river has cut a deep path through and around the forested mountains – quite spectacular. After an hour’s delay due we think to a misunderstanding on the lockkeeper’s part about our intention of passing through his lock, we arrived at Mettlach, the home of Villeroy and Boch, the porcelain manufacturers known world-wide for wonderful crockery, decorative items and sanitary ware! As we arrived we saw that the River Lady trip boat was moving off the last remaining space on the quay. Alex waved and mimed, “Is it OK for us to moor in the slot you have just left?” “Yes, OK for you”. Wonderful.
The following morning we saw that a huge 110m hotel barge had arrived at some point in the late evening and had had to tack on to the other end of the moorings, ending up half under a bridge. We felt rather guilty, worried that maybe we shouldn’t after all be moored where we were. This feeling is to dog us throughout out time in Germany, as the very next day the same hotel boat arrives at our mooring at Saarburg and moors within one metre of us to get his 110m onto the rest of the wharf.
We cycled into Saarburg town to view the castle on the hill and the waterfall which cascades down between the houses and operates the water wheels below. We had arrived on the day of the town’s Oktoberfest – a huge street market and eating bonanza which was fun to look round. When we got back to Riccall the hotel barge had left and a smaller one had arrived. In due course it too left, and we were alone with only a relatively small hotel barge until about 7.30pm, when a huge commercial hooted his horn as he nudged up close to moor up, in the dusk and heavy drizzle. Alex immediately went out to ask if we needed to move but signals indicated, “No, there is just room, and thanks for taking the ropes to the bollards”.
The commercial left at 6 am and we headed down to the end of the Saar and turned up the Moselle. By midday we had left German waters and entered Luxembourg. The first immediate benefit was that the signage was now in French as well as German so we could understand it. The second was that there were now places which indicated we could moor at them. Well, what they actually said was, “No mooring, except when the trip boat is not here. For times when you can moor see the list below” and underneath, where the timetable would normally be, were the wonderful words “Pas de restriction” – an end of season plus.
We found a nice place to stop at Remich where there is an hourly bus service to Luxembourg city so became serious tourists for the day. What a joy to see Luxembourg. Go if you possibly can. The city itself is lovely architecturally and historically but its great claim has to be its site – on a promontory with a deep, deep gorge cutting the city in two. We went for the obligatory ‘petit train’ ride around the city to get an overview, with earphone commentary in English, had lunch in one of the main squares in the cool sunshine, spent ages investigating the labyrinth of passages inside the massive walls of the 18th century defences, and wandered around the valley gardens and up and down the Spanish fortifications (16th century). We finished up with tea outside in a different square, still in sunshine, and caught the express bus back to Remich. A lovely day in a wonderful city.
We are now seriously en route back to our base in Toul but we have one more important tourist stop to make on the way – Metz. It is said to be an ‘astonishing’ city. We shall see.
River Saar, River Moselle
Now we are in Germany. The last of the locks which operated with our French zapper is half a kilometre into Germany and here we handed it in.
The lock keeper was a heavy-set man. Alex said, ‘Bonjour, or should I say guten Morgen?’ Not a glimmer of a smile, just took the zapper and turned on his heel heading back upstairs. Oh dear! Does this herald how things are going to be? We got to Saarbrucken and found the moorings in total disarray as, we learned later, they are being re-developed! It didn’t say that anywhere of course. We stopped at the first available spot (reserved for something else according to our interpretation of the signage – but what?) while we sussed the scene. Alex walked to the official ‘sport boat’ moorings which were full of museum boats, trip boats and hotel boats and no room even for little us.
Later Alex talked to the owner of one of the party boats – Gunter. He is an ex-commercial bargee who now takes party trips of up to 40 on one or both of his restaurant boats. He was very helpful – explaining about the redevelopment and told us we were OK where we were. We went into town looking for a chart of the River Saar in Germany and the River Moselle in Germany which we were lacking. No luck. Gunter lent us a couple of rather ancient, but workable charts, which we photocopied. So kind! We returned the charts with a present of Yorkshire tea and a load of information on hiring narrowboats in England which Gunter has a craving to do to see the English canals.
We wished we were staying longer so we could invite him and his girlfriend for drinks but we felt the need to press on. We asked him to give us a sentence in German that we could use to announce our arrival at each German lock, but as well as doing that he rang the lockkeeper at the next lock to warn him when we would be arriving. So the first lock was fine, and the second one OK, but thereafter it has been decidedly difficult with our lack of German and the lockkeepers’ lack of English or even French (except in one case). So there have been a couple of misunderstandings. The signage is very difficult to interpret even with a dictionary, partly because the kind of words we need on the waterways are not in our dictionary, but mainly because the Germans run all the words into one great long one (like the Welsh), so first you have to decide where one bit might end and the next begin, before you can try to look each bit up separately, then put it all back together again! Added to that, the humour and smiles we are used to in France, Belgium and Holland are definitely lacking here.
When we got to Saarlouis we looked briefly at a 30m floating pontoon but decided to view the other downriver mooring area first – 100m of it supposedly. But it was impossible for us. Intended for peniches at twice our length and shallow and rocky for at least 1.5m from the bank, before enough depth for us, and we have nothing suitable to hold ourselves off with. So we went back up to the pontoon, whereupon the captain of the trip boat River Lady, moored on the next pontoon, gesticulated emphatically that we couldn’t moor there. But our book and the signage on the pontoon indicted that we could. So we did another 360 degree turn, moored up on it anyway and Louise went off to enquire of the captain what the problem was. Apparently, he felt we were too big and heavy for the pontoon (probably right there) but told us we could spend a night on the other empty trip boat pontoon. Phew!
We had a cycle trip round Saarlouis which had the remains of an incredibly intricate fortification system which were interesting, and a cathedral rebuilt in concrete in 1960s style behind its still-standing frontage (18thc) which was just awful. We found ourselves castigating the Germans for this dreadful re-building until we remembered that it was probably us– the Allies – who had caused the destruction in the first place! Oops.
We motored on and entered the jewel in the River Saar’s crown – the Mettlach meander, a 5km hairpin bend where the river has cut a deep path through and around the forested mountains – quite spectacular. After an hour’s delay due we think to a misunderstanding on the lockkeeper’s part about our intention of passing through his lock, we arrived at Mettlach, the home of Villeroy and Boch, the porcelain manufacturers known world-wide for wonderful crockery, decorative items and sanitary ware! As we arrived we saw that the River Lady trip boat was moving off the last remaining space on the quay. Alex waved and mimed, “Is it OK for us to moor in the slot you have just left?” “Yes, OK for you”. Wonderful.
The following morning we saw that a huge 110m hotel barge had arrived at some point in the late evening and had had to tack on to the other end of the moorings, ending up half under a bridge. We felt rather guilty, worried that maybe we shouldn’t after all be moored where we were. This feeling is to dog us throughout out time in Germany, as the very next day the same hotel boat arrives at our mooring at Saarburg and moors within one metre of us to get his 110m onto the rest of the wharf.
We cycled into Saarburg town to view the castle on the hill and the waterfall which cascades down between the houses and operates the water wheels below. We had arrived on the day of the town’s Oktoberfest – a huge street market and eating bonanza which was fun to look round. When we got back to Riccall the hotel barge had left and a smaller one had arrived. In due course it too left, and we were alone with only a relatively small hotel barge until about 7.30pm, when a huge commercial hooted his horn as he nudged up close to moor up, in the dusk and heavy drizzle. Alex immediately went out to ask if we needed to move but signals indicated, “No, there is just room, and thanks for taking the ropes to the bollards”.
The commercial left at 6 am and we headed down to the end of the Saar and turned up the Moselle. By midday we had left German waters and entered Luxembourg. The first immediate benefit was that the signage was now in French as well as German so we could understand it. The second was that there were now places which indicated we could moor at them. Well, what they actually said was, “No mooring, except when the trip boat is not here. For times when you can moor see the list below” and underneath, where the timetable would normally be, were the wonderful words “Pas de restriction” – an end of season plus.
We found a nice place to stop at Remich where there is an hourly bus service to Luxembourg city so became serious tourists for the day. What a joy to see Luxembourg. Go if you possibly can. The city itself is lovely architecturally and historically but its great claim has to be its site – on a promontory with a deep, deep gorge cutting the city in two. We went for the obligatory ‘petit train’ ride around the city to get an overview, with earphone commentary in English, had lunch in one of the main squares in the cool sunshine, spent ages investigating the labyrinth of passages inside the massive walls of the 18th century defences, and wandered around the valley gardens and up and down the Spanish fortifications (16th century). We finished up with tea outside in a different square, still in sunshine, and caught the express bus back to Remich. A lovely day in a wonderful city.
We are now seriously en route back to our base in Toul but we have one more important tourist stop to make on the way – Metz. It is said to be an ‘astonishing’ city. We shall see.
Friday, 16 October 2009
Round trip through Germany and Luxembourg
Canal de Marne au Rhin (East), Moselle,
Canal des Houillieres de la Sarre, River Saar
Well, we’ve done the home to the UK bit and we are back here in tolerable Toul. Our narrow boat friends, Jean and Mike arrived for a couple of nights with us but there wasn’t really time to go for a boat trip so we showed them some of Toul instead and they gave us a lovely meal in one of the town restaurants.
We have re-met, and at last introduced ourselves to John and Sonya of Chocolat, who are wintering here and seen various other crews come and go. John and Sonya came for coffee and chat just before lunch and then we set off for Nancy. We moored for the night on the Moselle at Liverdun and were treated to a beautiful sunset, followed the next morning by a lovely mist-shrouded river scene, which slowly resolved itself into clarity as the sun drove off the vapour.
Nancy, our next port of call is a lovely city and having begun to suss it out, as we have on our trusty bicycles, we wonder if perhaps we should have been wintering here rather than at Toul. Too late – Alex has signed the contract, but our original plan had been to look at Nancy before we committed. Unfortunately, circumstances (mainly Louise worrying we would find ourselves without any mooring at all!) meant that was not possible, so we are where we are.
Nancy has the most wonderful Stanislas Square, which is like a central hub to the city. We were told that a magnificent light show is displayed in it at night but we missed the end of the season by a week!
However we have been treated instead to an amazing floral exhibition in the square, which has been arranged to celebrate 150 years of horticulture for the city’s parks and gardens.
Architecturally, Nancy has a wealth of buildings and elegant squares to offer and we hope to explore it further by car this winter, or by boat in the spring.
We are on a round trip, which takes in Nancy, then heads east for a bit before turning north for Saarbrucken in Germany. Then we head northwest for the border of Luxembourg and eventually head south again into France and back to Toul.
We are taking it very, very easy as usual, and the best bit so far has been the 16metre, yes 16 metre deep lock which was built to replace a flight of 6 locks. We spent the night at the foot of this giant lock in countryside as far from habitation, railways, airports, roads etc as you could hope to get. We had a choice in the morning – dash through at 9 o’clock or wait until 12 o’clock after the two commercial peniches had gone through at 10 and 11. We awoke early so went through at 9.
Instead of turning north at the junction, however, we motored on a short way to a village called Xouaxange where we were told there was a ruined tower, an interesting 15th century church and the remains of a château. We found a 10-foot high single wall, which was all that was left of the tower, the church was (unfortunately) forgettable, and of the château we found no sign. So instead we set off to ride to what was said to be one of the most attractive villages in France - a mere 12 km away! The road was very much up hill and down dale and when we eventually got to said village, we really could not see what there was to be said for it.
We had a tea and a coffee in a rather sleazy bar/pizza café (the far nicer place was just round the corner out of sight!) and started to wend our way back on a different route, which looked as though it might be more level. And after a few kilometres, Lo and Behold! We found a cycle track following the road on what had been a railway track. This was absolutely fantastic – excellent surface, no cars, no hills, no signage! But in due course we got to our canal about 3kms from the boat. Unfortunately, the road went under the canal and there was no obvious way up to the towpath – and we did look, did we not. So we ended up doing a 6km detour via unmarked roads till we eventually got back saddle sore and weary. What fun!
Autumn has truly arrived with very cool mornings, often misty, warming up by 11ish – sometimes lunch on deck – warm enough to sit out till 4.30 and then wham! very cold evenings and dark early – though not as early as at home being one hour ahead here.
So after the little sojourn off our route in Xouaxange we set off back onto our original course and arrived at the start of a set of 15 locks which were to be operated manually by a roving lockkeeper or two. We set off to go through the only manned lock (No 1) but arrived 15 minutes early in order to top up our water tank. We hadn’t used much but reckoned a refill is always worth doing when it’s available. The supply was painfully slow so at 10 o’clock we gave up on water and packed the hose up in readiness to leave. Now bear in mind we are in the lock doing this, under the beady eye of at least two lock keepers, but we waited and waited and nothing happened. We were not being penned through. At 10.15 Alex eventually attracted the attention of monsieur l’eclusier, who somehow hadn’t realised that we had been ready to go for the last quarter of an hour! Apologies, apologies, and off we went, but the canal was narrow and shallow so we could barely manage 6kph. At one point, we saw the lockkeeper who had gone ahead to prepare Lock 2, coming along the towpath in his van to see where we had got to! When he saw us as he came round the corner, he did an about turn and headed back to Lock 2 to wait.
When we eventually got there, there was another boat already in the lock waiting for us! They must have been waiting for ages but they were fine about it, and we locked through together until we got to Lock 14 at Mittersheim where we were going to spend a couple of nights. A lovely spot to moor – peaceful, free to moor, with water and electricity at 2€ for 4 hours, which if you time it right is quite reasonable.
While at Mittersheim we read that in a medieval village not 6 kms away, was a working watermill, a chateau with magnificent helicoidal staircase, an ancient bridge, and a hospital with ramparts. Does this begin to sound familiar? When we got there (uphill and down dale again) the château was closed, as was the Tourist Information office, the watermill inaccessible, and of the hospital we found no trace. Maybe we found the bridge, but it just looked like a bridge! However the medieval centre was rather splendid and after all probably worth the ride!
So we are now just about to enter Germany for the next stage of our round trip – with some trepidation. Keep watching this space!
Canal des Houillieres de la Sarre, River Saar
Well, we’ve done the home to the UK bit and we are back here in tolerable Toul. Our narrow boat friends, Jean and Mike arrived for a couple of nights with us but there wasn’t really time to go for a boat trip so we showed them some of Toul instead and they gave us a lovely meal in one of the town restaurants.
We have re-met, and at last introduced ourselves to John and Sonya of Chocolat, who are wintering here and seen various other crews come and go. John and Sonya came for coffee and chat just before lunch and then we set off for Nancy. We moored for the night on the Moselle at Liverdun and were treated to a beautiful sunset, followed the next morning by a lovely mist-shrouded river scene, which slowly resolved itself into clarity as the sun drove off the vapour.
Nancy, our next port of call is a lovely city and having begun to suss it out, as we have on our trusty bicycles, we wonder if perhaps we should have been wintering here rather than at Toul. Too late – Alex has signed the contract, but our original plan had been to look at Nancy before we committed. Unfortunately, circumstances (mainly Louise worrying we would find ourselves without any mooring at all!) meant that was not possible, so we are where we are.
Nancy has the most wonderful Stanislas Square, which is like a central hub to the city. We were told that a magnificent light show is displayed in it at night but we missed the end of the season by a week!
However we have been treated instead to an amazing floral exhibition in the square, which has been arranged to celebrate 150 years of horticulture for the city’s parks and gardens.
Architecturally, Nancy has a wealth of buildings and elegant squares to offer and we hope to explore it further by car this winter, or by boat in the spring.
We are on a round trip, which takes in Nancy, then heads east for a bit before turning north for Saarbrucken in Germany. Then we head northwest for the border of Luxembourg and eventually head south again into France and back to Toul.
We are taking it very, very easy as usual, and the best bit so far has been the 16metre, yes 16 metre deep lock which was built to replace a flight of 6 locks. We spent the night at the foot of this giant lock in countryside as far from habitation, railways, airports, roads etc as you could hope to get. We had a choice in the morning – dash through at 9 o’clock or wait until 12 o’clock after the two commercial peniches had gone through at 10 and 11. We awoke early so went through at 9.
Instead of turning north at the junction, however, we motored on a short way to a village called Xouaxange where we were told there was a ruined tower, an interesting 15th century church and the remains of a château. We found a 10-foot high single wall, which was all that was left of the tower, the church was (unfortunately) forgettable, and of the château we found no sign. So instead we set off to ride to what was said to be one of the most attractive villages in France - a mere 12 km away! The road was very much up hill and down dale and when we eventually got to said village, we really could not see what there was to be said for it.
We had a tea and a coffee in a rather sleazy bar/pizza café (the far nicer place was just round the corner out of sight!) and started to wend our way back on a different route, which looked as though it might be more level. And after a few kilometres, Lo and Behold! We found a cycle track following the road on what had been a railway track. This was absolutely fantastic – excellent surface, no cars, no hills, no signage! But in due course we got to our canal about 3kms from the boat. Unfortunately, the road went under the canal and there was no obvious way up to the towpath – and we did look, did we not. So we ended up doing a 6km detour via unmarked roads till we eventually got back saddle sore and weary. What fun!
Autumn has truly arrived with very cool mornings, often misty, warming up by 11ish – sometimes lunch on deck – warm enough to sit out till 4.30 and then wham! very cold evenings and dark early – though not as early as at home being one hour ahead here.
So after the little sojourn off our route in Xouaxange we set off back onto our original course and arrived at the start of a set of 15 locks which were to be operated manually by a roving lockkeeper or two. We set off to go through the only manned lock (No 1) but arrived 15 minutes early in order to top up our water tank. We hadn’t used much but reckoned a refill is always worth doing when it’s available. The supply was painfully slow so at 10 o’clock we gave up on water and packed the hose up in readiness to leave. Now bear in mind we are in the lock doing this, under the beady eye of at least two lock keepers, but we waited and waited and nothing happened. We were not being penned through. At 10.15 Alex eventually attracted the attention of monsieur l’eclusier, who somehow hadn’t realised that we had been ready to go for the last quarter of an hour! Apologies, apologies, and off we went, but the canal was narrow and shallow so we could barely manage 6kph. At one point, we saw the lockkeeper who had gone ahead to prepare Lock 2, coming along the towpath in his van to see where we had got to! When he saw us as he came round the corner, he did an about turn and headed back to Lock 2 to wait.
When we eventually got there, there was another boat already in the lock waiting for us! They must have been waiting for ages but they were fine about it, and we locked through together until we got to Lock 14 at Mittersheim where we were going to spend a couple of nights. A lovely spot to moor – peaceful, free to moor, with water and electricity at 2€ for 4 hours, which if you time it right is quite reasonable.
While at Mittersheim we read that in a medieval village not 6 kms away, was a working watermill, a chateau with magnificent helicoidal staircase, an ancient bridge, and a hospital with ramparts. Does this begin to sound familiar? When we got there (uphill and down dale again) the château was closed, as was the Tourist Information office, the watermill inaccessible, and of the hospital we found no trace. Maybe we found the bridge, but it just looked like a bridge! However the medieval centre was rather splendid and after all probably worth the ride!
So we are now just about to enter Germany for the next stage of our round trip – with some trepidation. Keep watching this space!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)