Last day of cycling: Ralingen to Trier; then train to Saarburg

Mon 28 Aug

Woke to a big fog. Needed lots of anti-inflam gel this morning...

Breakfast of our cereal and milk and crossed back over the river into Luxembourg. Nice riding. Lovely as the mist cleared and the sun came out quite strongly.

Somehow we missed the Ralingen tunnel. Not sure what happened there! Between Wintersdorf and Metzdorf (added to the 3 'dorfs' yesterday, I was trying to get to 7 - but alas, ran out of 'dorfs'), the track is mounted on stilts in order to protect the valuable wetland underneath. By the way, dorf = village.

Beautiful ride all the way to the Moselle river to Wasserbillig where we crossed on the ferry back to Germany and turned left to Trier. The ferry plies its way back and forth across the river all day long - only takes about 5 minutes.

At Konz we climbed the off-ramp to take the bridge over the point where the Saar River joins the Moselle, the blood pumping in my chest and my knees groaning and my brain saying 'no more of this!'. This is where we got our first puncture on the way to meeting Erika and Knud on their barge all those weeks ago. Better weather this time round!

In Trier we aimed straight for the waschsalon (laundromat). Clean clothes - hooray!

Trier was busy, a zillion people. It's an incredibly pretty place but I would prefer to be here when it is quieter (?).

We picked up the suitcases from the radgarage near the Porta Nigra - still there after all this time thankfully. (The suitcases I mean).

Then to the station to drop off the bikes and clamber on board the next train out; with just 4 minutes to spare, we were on our way to Mettlach, arriving there in hot afternoon sun (over 30 degC today, our hottest day so far this trip) just after 3 p.m. (Jenny: David has been smiling for you!!)

Mettlach is a shopper's paradise: lots of outlet shops, starting with the Villeroy and Boch. How wonderful it would be to have one of these at home: IKEA on steroids. The building is beautiful.

At the the Villeroy and Boch Museum we watched a wonderful film about the establishment of the ceramic factory - narrated by Peter Ustinov. What a joy! Thanks for the tip, Erika!!!!! Could have spent longer here!

We walked away from the river to find the Aldi to get water - very hot even at 5:30 p.m. David met up with a young Syrian guy who showed us the way. Turned out he is a doctor, only been here a week; he speaks Arabic, German and a little English. Lovely fellow. Terrible what is happening in his homeland. He is working here for a year, then ... who knows?

Nice walk back through town, past the wonderful Villeroy and Boch building that dominates the river here. Along with the WWF, they have set up a wonderful mosaic-themed art installation in their grounds. It also turns out, that the renovation of the wonderful mozaic floor at the Roman villa that we visited at Nennig when we stopped at Remich for a couple of nights on the barge with Erika and Knud almost 3 weeks ago, had been entrusted to Villeroy and Boch.

Drinks on the way back through town.

Yummy dinner at the hotel. The boys are definitely working their way through the local beers. MF2 LOVES this one:

Lovely sky as the sun went down - on the bridge over the river Saar.

Ride: All up about 30 kms today.