Day 2: Road to Grevenmacher
After a good nights sleep in Trier, we awoke 9ish and made our way downstairs to find breakfast. By 10:30 AM, we were ready once again to get on the bikes. Locating a bike store that was open in Trier on Easter weekend was a task worthy the most stout adventurer, but it was one we attempted and suceeded! Making a few general adjustments (ie. ass cushions!) to our rides, we decided that it would now be nice to go to the Roman Amphitheater for a look in the daylight. This was a wise choice indeed, for the labyrinth underneath the amphitheater was amazing! Endless passageways, you felt like you could become lost at any moment. After a few tight spaces, and close calls, we found our way into the light once more... See below some more pics from Trier!
Pictures from our second day in Trier.
Feeling lost in the Labyrinth, I decided I would climb the walls instead!
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Defying gravity!!
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Part of the amphitheater. That little purple blob in the distance is Ashie!
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Here I am standing in the middle of the amphitheater.
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This was taken in a beautiful garden close to the amphitheater and the Roman Catholic Cathedral.
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After touring Trier for an hour or so, we decided we had better put some miles behind us, as the day was already half over! The route out of Trier once again followed a river, but this time the Moselle. With surroundings much more attractive then Saarland, this bike trip was more enjoyable. The Rhineland-Pfalz region of Germany is one of the principle wine producing areas in the world. This means endless wineyards, as far as the eye can see! Our path lead us through the city of Konz, some 15 km from Trier. And from Konz we soon reached the boarder of Luxembourg. As you pass from one country into the other, the changes are subtle, but still noticable if you look. Instead of all signs writen in German, you start to see some French, and Lėtzebuergesch, the strange language (a cross between French and Dutch) that is native to Luxembourg. And the flags! Luxembourg is a very proud country, and it seems like everywhere you turn you see Luxembourg flags flying in the air! Not long into Luxembourg, we found the town of Mertert on the Moselle River. A relatively small town, it is also a major port along the Moselle. It was here that we had to come to some decisions. The nearest big center to Mertert was a city called Grevenmacher, some 15 km away. But, Grevenmacher was due South of Mertert, and Luxembourg City was due West, effectively putting Grevenmacher out of our way. Nevertheless, the road to Grevenmacher was well defined by street signs, and on our maps, therefore no chance of getting lost. The second choice was to continue West, on paths unknown, directly towards Luxembourg City. Where we would stay that night would then be a mystery. My mind was to continue to Grevenmacher, as was our plan before we left Trier. But, democratic vote ruled in favour of continuing West... The only problem was that the path to travel was unknown to us... Therefore we spent the next hour roaming hopelessly around Mertert, until we finally found a road that lead to Wecker, a town West of Mertert. Travelling this road proved quite enjoyable, but also quite hilly. With many ups and downs, we made Wecker (which is the German word for alarmclock) a few hours later. Wecker is a small, quite town not far into Luxembourg. We decided to stop here for some refreshments at the local pub, and then discuss where the next leg of our journey woud take us. It was still another 30-35 km to Luxembourg city, far too much to travel today. But Grevenmacher was slightly Southeast of Wecker, approximately 8 km. So after debating the issue, we decided to backtrack to Grevenmacher in search of a Youth Hostel for the night...
We made Grevenmacher without much more difficulty. This city is actually the chief center of an area of Luxembourg also called Grevenmacher. A small city, we found the local Youth Hostel quite easily... but finding the proprietor of the Hostel was another thing entirely! Upon entering the Hostel, we found several groups of people, not youths as one woud expect to see in a "Youth Hostel", hanging around. All were guests, and none knew where to find the owner of the Hostel. Indeed we were told that she was on vacation in China of all places! At a loss of what to do, by chance we meet a woman from Nigeria who was also a guest. Very helpful, she explains that the owner's daughter lives in a house close to the Hostel, but she wasn't sure which one... So together with this woman, we procede to ring each doorbell on the entire street looking for the daughter. No luck, in fact not a single person answers... We are beginning to think this is a very strange town... This feeling is compounded when the Nigerian explains that her and her friend are staying in this Hostel under political asylum! The day was coming to a close, and we now had no where to stay for the night in this town. It was now too late and cold to bike anywhere else, we were again at a loss of what to do. But helpful to the end, the Nigerian girl offered to let us stay in her room for the night! She explained that she would not be home this night, and that there were 6 beds in each room, and only 2 were occupied, leaving 4 for us! Reluctant to do this, we accept the offer as a last resort. Giving us her key, we settle into the room. Not long later, a second Nigerian girl who was also staying in this room comes home. Needless to say, she was surprized to find us in her room. We try to explain what had happened, and she is also very understanding and helpful, and tells us it was ok for us to stay. Then while myself and Rick are getting showers, the daughter comes to the Hostel finally. She is not very happy to find strange people in one of the rooms, and basically flips out at Ashie and Caro for not trying to find her. Explaining that we tried to find her, and call her, but that she was unreachable, did very little to sooth the woman's anger. She was a real bitch! But, I being in the shower missed this show and only heard it second hand. But in the end, we were allowed to stay in the room... but we are again filled with feelings that this is a strange town...
After cleaning up, we needed food! So we made our way to the town center in search of a restaurant. Again, being Easter weekend and fairly late, this was not so easy. Luckily we found a Chinese food place, and had a very nice meal! Then, after looking around the town for a while, we decided we had better head back and get some sleep. Realizing that no one brought the key were we given by the first Nigerian girl, we were filled with dread of having to knock on all doors of the houses for a second time in search of the devil-woman, or even worse, being locked out of the Hostel all together, and not being able to retrieve our belongings! But seeing how I never endured her wrath the first time, I volunteered to do the searching! But after one knock, it turned out we didn't need to continue, as the second Nigerian girl came back and gave us the key we had forgotten! Finally, we settled into our beds and were just ready to go to sleep, when the owner of the Hostel returned from her vacation in China! What are the chances?? Well, again she was surprized to see us in the room with the Nigerian girls, but not a bitch unlike her daughter. She quickly opened another room for us, so we now had a place all to ourselves! So after all this trouble and adventure, we finally had a room at the Youth Hostel! No doubt we caused an uproar in the town that will probably be on the front page of the local newspaper the next day! Weird town... note that Grevenmacher translates to grave maker in English... Very strange people... Well here are some pics from the journey from Trier to Grevenmacher!
Pictures from the journey from Trier to Grevenmacher.
Here we are standing by a roadsign in Wecker. Luxembourg was another 30km, so we decided to go to Grevenmacher instead!
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After Wecker we had a very long climb up a steep hill for at least 1 km. But on the top was some nice sceanery!
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We are taking a break after the long climb!
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This is what alot of the countryside of Luxembourg looks like. Much farmland, trees, and hills!
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This was taken in Grevenmacher. There was not much to see in this town, it was pretty boring...
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Continue on to Day 3 by clicking here.
