Day 11 Sierk les Bains to Saarbrucken

A day of contrasts today, we decided to leave the route I had plotted on my GPS and instead aimed for the Eurovelo 5 route I had seen on online maps, mainly because there seemed a better choice of campsites in that direction.  We assumed the route would be clearly marked!
Unfortunately the first part of our route this morning wasn't  marked nor were many of the paths marked on our paper map.  So we soon gave up on the Eurovelo and just followed the D roads westwards over the watershed from the Mosel valley to the Saar valley.  The roads were good over pleasant  rural terrain but pretty hilly

Once  over the border German efficiency took over from the French  laissez faire and good signposting was resumed.
Being a Sunday there were very few places open for food but at Siersburg we found a kebab restaurant which was open.  We had a bit of a language problem here because  our German is hopeless and the Kurdish waiter's was just about as bad.  Fortunately the guy at the next table acted as translater.  He and his wife then invited us to their house for coffee after our lunch.  So we spent a pleasant hour or so blethering to Tania and Klaus before eventually getting back on to the main bike route south along the river Saar.

In contrast to this morning  the ride along the Saar was flat, well  signposted and very industrial.  Some of the old industrial complexes were fascinating, like something  out of mad max.

Although the bike paths were great  we still managed to get slightly  off route  occasionally.

Excellent  dinner in a nearby  (sort of  ) French  restaurant. Haven't quite worked out yet where we're going tomorrow.

Day 10 Ettelbruck to Sierk Les Bains

A great days cycling today, warmer weather and a great route.  The morning's section of 20 miles or so back into Luxembourg City were along  a beautiful car free cycle route virtually all the way.

Manny / Brenda- you would need  a lot of time for this section as you'd never get Maisey past all the playparks along  the way.

Once we reached the city the route followed the gorge which flows through the centre of the city.

After a good lunch it was back out into some more rolling hills.  The route was nowhere near  as well marked as the Vennbahn but we managed to find our way quite easily along lovely quiet roads eventually dropping down ton tonight's campsite right on the babanks of the Moseley river. We wasted no time before sampling the local produce.

Sierk les Bains is an ancient wee town nestling below a chateau and it is having its own festival tonight. They must have heard we were coming .

Day 9 Troisvierges to Ettelbruck

It was a lot cooler this morning with a strong north westerly wind which fortunately was mainly behind us most of today.  After seeking advice from various people last night we ignored them all and chose a marked cycle route south east through the pretty steep rolling hills.

We then picked up some quiet roads and another cycle path to Kautenbach.  As we had worked out from the maps last night, this area in the centre of Luxembourg is hemmed in on all sides by steep hills with the only route along the very narrow river valley south towards Luhuxembourg city being by rail.  So we jumped on the train for the short trip to Ettelbruck where we decided to stop off early for the day and take the train into Luxembourg city for a bit of sightseeing.  (A day ticket covering all destinations in the country of Luxembourg cost us 4 euros.)

 This turned out to be a good decision as there were huge celebrations going on in the city for their National Day.  Most of the city seemed to be closed off to traffic with stages for bands all over the city.  We didn't quite have the stamina to wait around for the apparently spectacular fireworks display on the main  bridge.  When  we left the 6th articulated lorry of fireworks was being manoeuvred into position.

We did however join in the more modest celebrations back in Ettelbruck. ( which is why this post is a day late)

Day 8 Monschau to Troisvierges

It started off pretty driech this morning but we soon found the Vennbahn again and used one of its many shelters to get our wet weather gear on.

The first 27 miles or so today to Sankt Vith were along fantastically smooth tarmac with lots of rest points and villages for coffee along the way.

After Sankt Vith the track was a bit more changeable with some sections of gravel and a few more twisty bits through farming villages.  But it still generally followed the railway line with gentle gradients and lots
of information boards giving information and history of the area.  The weather also improved into a really nice afternoon.

There was a wee sting in the tail though as the last tunnel before Troisvierges was closed off as it was home to several colonies of rare bats.  We therefore had to take the high Road over the border into Luxembourg.

We are now in a really nice campsite where we have aquire a new map and have been getting some advice from other bikers and the site warden on the best route south from here.  There is a tricky wee bit in the middle of Luxembourg where the options seem to be take a 10 minute train journey or do an extra 15 miles or so with over 2500ft of climbing.  We'll decide when we get there.

Day 7 Vaals to Monschau

Up bright and early again this morning and followed the bike paths back into Aachen where, thanks to Ingred our camp site host at Brommelen we picked up the Vennbahn cycle route.

The Vennbahn follows a disused railway line so although we climbed over 2000 feet today the gradient was never much above 2%

Except of course when we took a wee detour at Raeren to have a look at some museum, we then dropped like a stone only to find the bloody place was shut!

So we climbed back up to the Vennbahn stopping for a coffee on the way then carried on to Monschau where we stopped for lunch.  We then decided we would just stay there for the night.  This decision was based on a number of reasons, Monschau was a beautiful wee town, we had already done about 40 miles, it would have been a big climb back up to the Vennbahn and Sandra had a sair bum!

The campsite was only about a mile and a half from where we had lunch but I totally lost my bearings and we had a real sprachle to find it. 

Tomorrow we'll get back onto the Vennbahn somehow but we have no idea where we'll end up.

Day 6 Brommelen to Vaals

We had a short flat run into Maastricht in the morning where we had a fairly brief wander round the old town centre.

We then headed westwards and for the first time we didn't have the wind in our faces. We did however have hills for the first time in over 200 miles and some of them were pretty steep.  We were now into rolling farmland and cycle ways which were very well used by a mixture of guys on road bikes and loads of pensioners on electric bikes who kept wheeching past us on the hills!

However this old guy gave us a bit of encouragement as we passed his house.

stopped  off for lunch at the pretty wee town of Gulpin before finishing off the last few miles to our campsite at Vaals.  

We then got the bus into the Historic City of Aachen in Germany for a wander round and some dinner.

Having got used to the pretty good Dutch cycling maps we have been using so far, we are now having to move onto some less bike specific maps which look as though they might be a bit harder to follow as we hopefully work our way south crisscrossing the Belgian/ German border.

Day 5 Nederweert to Brommelen

More interesting terrain today following the canal down to the river Mass then upstream in the direction of Mastricht. It was interesting to see that bikes go at almost exactly the same speed as barges as we matched Isiah all the way to Wessem.

Just before Wessem we came across numerous trees which had obviously been felled by beavers.

After stopping for lunch at Wessem we somehow crossed into Belgium but we're not quit sure where, we only realised when we saw Belgian flags outside houses.  If it wasn't for the World Cup we would never have noticed.  At Berg we took our shortest ever international ferry crossing and carried on towards our planned campsite just south of Elsloo.

Our planned campsite looked a bit rough so we decided to carry on another 3 miles to the site at Brommelen, this turned out to be a Dutch Caravan Club members only site!  However, as often happens they were happy to accommodate  a couple of weary bike tourists.  The site owner even downloaded a GPS route for the next part of our journey.

Today's plans for an easy day never materialised as it was another 45 miles into the wind.  Maybe a shorter day tomorrow??