August 2024 – Part 1 (1st to 15th)
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Our first day back together after two weeks apart, we were quickly up and ready to leave the marina and head back into France, with the intention of mooring in Thionville again, this time at a more convenient spot than previously. As Amy was ostensibly ‘working from home’, we needed to ensure a good data signal for her, and this seemed to be better in France than Luxembourg, and during our five hours of cruising (in less than perfect weather) she was alternating between her laptop, the dogs and us (mostly in that order), until we reached the Halte Fluviale de Thionville, finding it completely empty with a near-perfect mooring space for us.
Exhausted after a late arrival the previous day and with a relatively early start this morning, we settled ourselves in for the evening, only leaving the boat to take a walk alongside the river after dinner, passing Parc Naloleon with its many pop-up style eateries and entertainments before reaching some more rural stretches further along.
The following day, leaving Amy working from the boat after her early morning run, Nicki and I walked into the town centre and despite a few bursts of rain we were able to wander round and see a few bits and pieces, obviously taking in a couple of coffee shops when the rain got too heavy for us.
Another evening stroll along the riverside, in the opposite direction this time, was cut short by yet more rain, and we quickly hurried back to the boat.
Amy’s next two days with us were over a weekend, so she was able to spend the whole of the Saturday away from Shensi – we decided to take the train into Luxembourg city to show her around (although on arrival at the train station we found that trains were cancelled due to rail works, and so we had to catch a replacement bus). Based on our own previous visit, we headed straight to the City Tourist Train and Nicki and Amy were transported around the city to be shown it’s delights, whilst I sat with the dogs waiting for their return. Then it was time for food and drinks, more walking through the beautiful park (Parc Drai Eschelon) at the base of the Casements (hard to believe you were actually in the heart of the city), looking at the various shops and places of interest, before taking the bus back to Thionville later in the day.
Sunday we decided to catch the train to Metz and spent several hours there … arriving at the train station we were instantly impressed with its architecture, it’s grandeur and the sheer size of its buildings.
Walking further into the town, we came across the beautiful Metz cathedral with its stunning stained glass windows, the Temple Neuf just along from the Opéra-Théâtre de Metz Metropole in the Place de Comedi, a very pretty and peaceful spot in the heart of the city.
The next five photos show the approach to the pop-up gardens outside the Opéra-Théâtre de Metz Metropole, in Comedy square which showcase a series of small gardens each with its own nod to one of the senses.
After several hours of being tourists, we plumped for a ride on the Metz City Tourist Train (dogs allowed this time), and trundled around the quasi-cobbled streets to catch sight of even more local attractions and buildings, with a good party of the journey taken in the rain! Luckily the train was covered so it wasn’t so bad.
Back in Thionville we walked across to our mooring where we would be staying for the remainder of Amy’s time with us. Although she had to work, we did manage some time to investigate second hand shops in Thionville, and to make a couple more walks in the evenings.
For ease of Amy’s early start on her final morning, we decided that it would be best to return to the marina in Schwebsingen for her last night with us, so we set off with the intention of stopping at Sierck les Bains so that Nicki and I could visit the Chateau des Ducs de Lorraine, a fortess overlooking the river that we had spotted previously, whilst Amy stayed on the boat working. We were able to moor up extremely closely, and made the short walk up the hill to the entrance. With the high temperatures it was quite pleasant inside of the walls of the chateau, and there were some spectacular views across the surrounding landscape and river.
Returning to Shensi, we quickly decamped and carried on to the marina at Schwebsingen for another night’s mooring – on heading into the office, I was happy to be told that we would not be charged for just the one night as we had stayed with them for almost a month not so long ago!
In the morning we had an early start, with Amy taking the dogs for a last walk before her departure. Nicki stayed behind to make full use of the electricity and water by doing several piles of washing that morning, whilst I caught the bus with Amy into Luxembourg airport – just a couple of hours later and I was back onboard and we were able to set off for a new destination.
With no fixed stopover in mind we cruised along, and keeping a lookout for somewhere reasonable, eventually mooring in Wincheringen (just a couple of kilometres from Wormeldange which is apparently the capital of the Reisling portion of the Moselle) along what appeared to be a fairly new stretch of quay, well maintained and next to a lovely landscaped green area and a play area, with a (shared) cycle track alongside the river.
Despite a train line on the other side of the river, we had a peaceful night there only interrupted a couple of times by the passing of a couple of rather large commercial barges, one of which was over 170 metres long! Not much to see in the town (top four listed attractions are all restaurants!), but a pleasant overnight stop.
Off once more, we carried on along the Moselle for another couple of hours until we came across a rather attractive mooring at Wasserbillig and decided to stay there for that night. By now the heat was creeping up (at 4.30pm it was 35 degrees in the wheelhouse, despite the blinds closed and windows all open!) so aside from a slow stroll with the dogs to a nearby Lidl we spent the rest of the afternoon on the boat trying to keep cool.
During the evening, Nicki walked the dogs across a nearby bridge into Germany (but only a few metres across the border) before turning back into Luxembourg and taking the dogs for a walk along a tributary river just round the corner from us. Later that evening a river cruise passenger ship came along and asked if we could move for about ten minutes whilst summer passengers disembarked, so we quickly ‘de-roped’ for them and just held back a way until they left. All very painless, and we were back in position and tied up again well within the ten minutes.
The mooring itself was very pleasant, but unfortunately we had nighttime fishermen at our stern, and they were pretty noisy well into the early hours, so a disturbed night which was compounded when we woke up to Casper having had sickness and diarrhoea (yet again). Ah well, at least the weather was good!!
Now on 11th August, today we left the beautiful scenery surrounding the Moselle, and joined the Saar river, mooring up about a kilometre from the town if Saarburg, taking a nice walk along the canal into the town once it became cooler in the evening.
The following day Nicki and I cycled over to discover the town, and it proved to be a little gem with a few interesting features, a waterfall, a system of water channels directing the water to a working mill and pretty little streets. And a nice cafe overlooking the water, all surrounded by flowers.
The next morning, we slowly meandered along this pleasant river travelling through some dense forest when in the distance we could see a structure looming out the skyline. On searching, it transpired that it was in fact an “elevated wooden bridge through a forest path, which ends at a lookout tower with striking views” at Saarschleife in Germany. A little further on we found bollards along the riverside, just enough for us to moor up overnight, and we pulled up thinking we would walk up to visit the area.
However, that day it was incredibly, incredibly hot and apathy set in, so we ended up just staying out of the heat for as much as possible. Early evening Nicki did manage a walk into the forest with the dogs, and the shade of the trees was very welcome by the three of them.
At some point during the day we decided it would be a good idea to sleep out on the stern deck in the hope that it might be cooler for us. With a little relocating of all the tables, chairs and bikes, we managed to make space for a double mattress topper, surrounding it with a large mosquito net, before we bedded ourselves down and even dropped off to the sounds of various nighttime creatures, twittering and hooting, and moving through the forest. The dogs were slightly confused with this new sleeping arrangement, but more than happy once they realised just how close they could be to us (extremely close, as it turned out).
After a very uncomfortable night on the stern, the dogs woke us up much earlier than we’d hoped, so we were off again by 8 am and managed a seven hour day of cruising in temperatures in the high 30s passing through several locks on our way until we came across an isolated little mooring that proved to be more than adequate for the night.
After some intermittent rain overnight, we were very pleased to wake to a cooler morning, and began today’s journey to the town of Saarbrücken – coming across an Aldi supermarket on the riverside with mooring nearby. We quickly pulled over to take advantage of this shopping opportunity – it’s not often that we have a mere 100 or so metre walk carrying lots of heavy shopping back to the boat, so we were very happy with that spot.
Today’s cruise lasted for about five hours (including our surprise shopping trip) with several more locks to pass through, but early afternoon we were sailing into Saarbrücken and searching for a berth for the night, which ended up along a nice grassy, tree lined bank close to the centre.
That evening we walked into the town centre and saw the beautiful exterior of the church with a pretty spectacular stone St George and the Dragon high on one of its walls.
