Luxembourg and Germany

June 28th, 2009 (Sally) 

We collected Rotary friends, Mervyn and Glenda, at Metz and found time for them to see some of the sights before heading off downstream the next morning. First stop Thionville, where the only mooring available was a finger wharf right in the middle of town that was occupied by the town youth and their toys. i.e. jet skis. They moved over for us and we tied-up and headed into town for a quick look. By the time we returned so had they, and the quay was awash with enthusiastic jet skiers and their families. Sable being a convenient height, was being used as a seat and one lovely lass had stripped down to a bikini and was using Sable for a photo shoot. All good fun and though we did cop a bit of wash from exuberant skiers by 7pm it was all over and we had a pleasant night. Our next stop was meant to be just before we crossed the border into Luxembourg but at the last lock we were told to move on as that 17km stretch of river was to be lowered two metres as part of a major works program. Just a few kilometres on we found a marina close to the village of Schwebsange. Like all villages on the Moselle it is a vintners village but this one has the added attraction of a fountain that in festival season gushes wine for all to enjoy. Much as we would have enjoyed that spectacle it was just as well for our health and well being that it is not festival season at the moment. We were all taken with the neatness of the village, it looked like a recent entry in Tidy Towns but as we ventured further into Luxembourg we found the whole country to be the same. Nowhere was there a piece of litter or graffiti and every house and garden was a picture.

Our knowledge of Luxembourg was woefully inadequate but with the aid of a friendly waiter in Luxembourg City we did fill in a few gaps but no one was able to tell us why they have two flags, one of which is almost identical to the Dutch flag. Very confusing. Our impressions of Luxembourg was that it was a very desirable place to live and others seem to think the same. The population of Luxembourg City is 90,000 of which 67% are foreign citizens. Also, another 90,000 cross the borders to work in Luxembourg every day. Finance management seems to play a big part in their economy. It was not the only similarity we felt it had with Switzerland.      

As we cruised downstream the next morning we looked at the village of Remich and reluctantly decided that with the amount of activity on revamping the bridge and a little ferry boat crossing from one bank to the other there was no room for us and admired it from afar. However only 3kms further on we were turned back by the lock keeper with the news that the Moselle and the Sarre were closed! For a week! Major maintenance was being carried out on numerous locks so back we went and found a magic spot right opposite Remich on the German side of the river. It was no hardship to spend a week there, the ferry was free and crossed as soon as it had passengers. On one morning as I crossed over to buy our morning croissants the pilot said he would wait for me to shop, and he did. We spent the time on a little bit of maintenance, some dining out under the long esplanade of shaded tables, and another trip to Luxembourg City (bus fare 1.50€ for 25 km trip!) to explore and hire a car for two days. Just to satisfy ourselves that the rest of the trip would be hassle free we took the car over to the Sarre Valley and checked that all the work was going to be finished on time. At the little village of Mettlach we discovered the German home of Villeroy and Bosch. (Villeroy was from Luxembourg and Bosch was German; they have factories in both countries, founded in the 1700’s.) It is obviously the favourite shopping centre for many, and why not. The whole main street is a plethora of outlet stores of which Villeroy and Bosch occupy four. We had fun and Sable now has a new dinner service and the old one has been banished to the store cupboard.

The next day to satisfy a whim we took the car and drove through the northern part of Luxembourg and into Belgium to visit the sites of the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes. It started on December 16th 1944, the day Tony was born, and was Germany’s last major offensive in WW11. With 800,000 Americans taking part and 19,000 casualties it was the bloodiest campaign that the Americans took part in and is obviously a major stop for many American tourists. The German objective was to break through the Allied lines at the crossroads of Bastogne and get control of the port of Antwerp, therefore leaving four armies without a supply line. We visited Bastogne, where the memories are very much alive — a WW11 tank and US jeep in the square — and then went across the high plateau through some lovely forest and farmland to La Roche en Ardennes. It also sports a US tank plus the biggest museum devoted to the battle but apart from that has refashioned itself as an outdoor centre for active sports. Mountain biking, kayaking and canoeing were very much in evidence but it was apparent that the favourite sport, as in all Belgium cities, is sitting in the town square with a large Belgium beer.

Day eight of our enforced stop and while we were preparing to leave I took the motor bike for a run into Nenning, our nearby German village, and visited the roman villa that I had seen a sign post directing one towards. Wow, in this minute village is the best preserved roman mosaic floor outside Italy. It was only discovered in 1852 so had been under dirt for 1500 years and was in almost perfect condition. Measuring 160 m2 and made up of three million individual pieces it was the centrepiece of a very wealthy Roman palace. They have discovered enough of the foundations to build a model of the villa. The original was 140 m long and must have dominated the whole valley. I was open mouthed when I saw it and could not understand why it is so relatively unknown.

From Nenning to the confluence of the Moselle and Sarre is through ever-increasing acres of vineyards, new plantings going on some of the steepest slopes we have seen. We turned into the Sarre and made our first stop at the pretty town of Saarburg. The town is delightful, built over an old water mill with bridges crossing the mill race and geranium boxes on every available surface. It seemed that everyone in town was sitting down in the area called ‘Little Venice’ to the largest ice cream sundaes imaginable and it was apparent that this was a regular treat. French people are not fat. Don’t ask me why, but it is so obvious when you cross the border and see the increasing girth of so many other nationals. In spite of the fact that we were parked under a P sign we were told to move on by two of the townsfolk. As we have no German we were able to look suitably nonplussed and eventually they gave up. One lady even tried to enlist the help of a group of young guys to translate for her. They were far more interested in the bottles of beer they had with them than acting as pseudo policemen so we stayed very comfortably where we were.

The Sarre is a busy commercial river, feeding coal to the steel mills at Saarbrucken and Dillinger and taking loads of steel back down to the Rhine. We passed barges coupled with a pusher barge carrying 5,000 tonnes of coal. Those ones measure 175 metres long and 11.5 wide so one gives them a very clear berth. Good to see though as the equivalent amount carried by trucks would put over 200 semi-trailers on the road. On the lower reaches it is a pretty river with steep tree clad slopes on either side, vineyards too but in smaller numbers. However as one reaches the steel manufacturing area the giant mills and furnaces are a defining part of the landscape and we were not inclined to linger too long. After Saarbrucken we were back into cruising country, small locks and canals again, soon the signs changed to French and we were back in France. Not only were we back in France but at the very first stop, Sarreguemines, the annual festival of the river was in full fray. Street stalls, food and music everywhere and try your hand at every sort of water sport. What a welcome back. We moored right next to Kiwi bargees Roger and Ruth, on Romany, whom we met last year on the Meuse, ordered a wood fired pizza and sat back to enjoy the spectacle and catch up on news. Thank goodness the Wallabies thrashed France the night before.