Le Tour de France

As many of you know we have a passion for Le Tour and have been fortunate over the years to see a number of stages. A few years have passed since we saw our last Tour so we were thrilled when we heard this years route and realised we would be very nearby if we got ourselves organized. So the planning began. Had to take onto account that the lock system on the Moselle River was shutting 9 days for maintenance so needed to be in place before that happened so Monday the 27th we were back in Remich, Luxembourg.
Our nearest point to Remich where le tour was passing was Schengen so the week before Karen & I cycled the 10km up to Schengen to check things out. Already the town was gearing up, posters and signs everywhere


Monday Knud and Erik cycled over to see part of stage 3

Finally the day had arrived, early start to cycle down to Schengen to get a good place for the wait.
We were not the only ones to arrive early, already there were large groups of very excited school children , all wearing yellow tshirts with Schengen is alive printed on them. By the end of the morning there were 100's of kids all being very enthusiastic.

For those of you who have not experienced le Tour the best way to describe it would be an advertising circus. About 2 hours before the cyclists wizz past the caravan comes through. Loud music, blaring advertising, floats & the throwing of samples into the crowds which I'm afraid to say really doesn't bring out the best in people .











The yellow umbrella you can see in some of the photos belongs to a rather pushy greedy women who used it to catch samples, this couple I might add only stayed for the samples and did not stay to watch the cyclists
So a bit of a wait then the first cyclist wizzed past, Guillaume van Keirsbulck his solo ride for almost 180km would have to go down as one of the greatest rides. Then 1 min latter the rest of the rides tore past






And finally the winners are

What a great day we all had. Then it was time for Karen and Erik to say goodbye and head off in their camper van to meet up with Tracy & Pat to see some more Tour stages. What a great 2 weeks we have shared.

Time Flies

So here we are, beginning of July, past couple of weeks wizzed past, what have we done with our time?
From Saarburg we headed back down the Saar River onto the Moselle River & headed back up to Grevenmacher for a few nights then back up to Remich on the 26th June. The locks are shut for maintenance for at least 9 days and we wanted to be in the best possible place for when Le Tour passes through Luxembourg.
Wine tasting with Karen and Erik
A few bottles purchased, Knud & Erik stagger under the weight
Knud and Erik off for a ride
Karen cooling off in the Moselle
Tractors are just not only for the fields, also great for caravan pulling, about 5 of of theses set ups paseed by.

More wine tasting and underground cellar tour

Graham, Else and Angela for dinner one evening, amazing how many can fit around the table



About 3 km from where we are moored, over in Germany is an amazing mosaic. The lavish mosaic floor of the Roman vilka in Nenning is one of the most important finds of its kind north of the Alps. This beautiful floor was uncovered by a farmer back in 1852, he notified the authorities in Trier and they took over, building a shelter over it and then they began extensive excavations uncovering a palacial villa whose size & appointments makes it one of the most opulant of its kind in the Roman provinces . The mosaic has been dated to the 3rd century AD.

A few postcards

With the iffy internet the blog gets last priority so here is a quick catch up of a few places & people from last few weeks
Graham and Knud. Graham( an Englishman who has lived in Luxembourg for past 40 years ) great guy we met a couple of years ago in Berlin, again kept in contact and catch up with around the place. A couple of great nights with him and Else , his Danish wife when we arrived to Luxembourg.
heading down the beautiful Moselle River



Knud busy painting, this is the year for a bit of maintenance
This was one of those moments. Throttle cable broke as we were heading into a lock. Luckily we were not going too fast and some skilful boat handling on Knuds part ensured that we avoided a disaster. Lock filled, we rose to the top, gates opened and Knud pulled us out manually to the quay where we stopped for an hour or so while he fitted a new cable. Then all fixed and off we went, heart beat had almost resumed to normal.
Wonderful to have Karen and Erik joining us in Saarburg, now we are on the Saar river, as the crow flies not far from Remich , only about 20km but 50km by river.
Karen and Erik with Saarburg castle in background. This castle dates from the 900's and stands on the hill, overlooking the
bend of the Saar. Karen & Erik celebrating their 44th wedding anniversary today.
Have been having a bit of a hot spell here this week, how great that we are somewhere we can jump in the water and cool off. Karen , Erik and Knud splashing about

Luxembourg City

One of the best things about our way of life here on the European waterways are the people you meet. A number of yesrs ago , 2009 , we met a lovely family from Luxembourg when we were on the Burgundy Canal. Josée, Armand and their 3 gorgeous daughters Christne, Anne Marie & Catherine. We shared locks together for 2 days as we made our way towards Dijon. Since then we have kept in touch, & met up a few times ., always great times and lots of laughs.
So it was wonderful to be in Luxembourgish waters and to have the chacne of more time together.
Saturday we were treated to a rather special day, our own private guides in Luxembourg City. Knud had been here 40 years ago and was underwhelmed to say the least, but boy oh boy did he change his mind by the end of the day. Personally my first tine here and I fell in love with the place, think it will become my new favourite city.
Luxembourg built on a series of hill tops with a deep river gorge running through. Needless to say fortifications built and fought over in the past 1000 years, much renovation work has been done in the past 40 years and city looking very well cared for and loved.
Armand, Josée, & Knud as we are about to set off on our walking tour






A rather serious Cake Shop, what better place to stop for a reviving coffee and cake. Just opposite the Royal Palace for those needing to know



Knud on the Lion, there is a photo of Knud taken 40 years ago on very same lion, just took a little longer to get up on it this time.

A wonderful day with great friends.