Monday 7 May - Never go back! The last time we were in Saarburg we took the train into Mettlach to the outlet village where we enjoyed a delicious lunch in the Villeroy and Bosch canteen. Accordingly, we took the chairlift down to town, jumped on the train (more expensive than we recalled) walked into Mettlach and into the canteen - only to find it gone! No canteen - all closed down. Not even a bit of cake to be had! The rest of the village looked tired and boring so we took the train back into Saarburg and had a delicious lunch next to the river. As I said - never go back.
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| Saarburg |
Tuesday was another bright and sunny day so we walked down to Saarburg through the vineyards, enjoyed a massive (and very cheap) ice cream (how come you can buy a decent gelato in Germany for 1 yoyo, yet pay over 3 quid for a chemical concoction from a tatty Mr Whippy in the UK?), popped into Lidl/Aldi to find Aperol at a ridiculously low price and then tried to get our overloaded shopping bags and ourselves back on a chairlift to the site.
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| Vineyards above Saarburg |
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| Ice cream spaghetti - had to be done! |
9 May - Another warm and sunny day, but there were signs of the clouds building. We walked out
the back of the site down the cycle path that we had driven up on our last visit (oops) and down to Ayl, admiring the grillhutte on the way (this is like a village hall type affair (but significantly more attractive), set on the hillside overlooking the town). It was a very pretty walk through some lovely scenery. We stopped at a Weinstube, had a bit of a tasting, bought 2 bottles, walked into Saarburg where we were ripped off for a beer by the boat stop, took the chairlift back up to the site to find that all hell had let
loose and thousands of Germans had appeared. It was amusing watching them claim and mark out every inch
of their pitch. It would appear that the following day is yet another public holiday - time to
move on.
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| Saarburg |
Thursday 10 May - We drove on to Piesport on the Mosel in pouring rain. Set up on nice
stellplatz, walked to admire the stunning church followed by Rhubarb cake and coffee in the local café. We walked the calories off with a long bimble around the town and decided that we liked the place so much we would stay for another day, the wine festival being held in the village having absolutely nothing at all to do with our decision (yeah, right!).
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| The famous Peieporter Vineyards |
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| Just a few winemakers |
On Friday we decided to follow the Mosel cycle path into Berncastel-Kues (a return journey of 22 miles). Berncastel-Kues is a very pretty place, but being a holiday (or a bridging day - these Europeans never appear to do any work) it was packed. We had a wander around, ate an ice cream, then followed the path back on the opposite side of the river, stopping at a delightful Weinstube where we sat on deckchairs on the meadow overlooking the river. When we got back to the van we found that the alarm had sounded and the cause appeared to be the accessory loop (the wire that secures the bikes and bike rack. According to an English couple the child from the neighbouring Belgian van was around the back near the loop when it sounded. We assume he touched the wire - I bet he cacked himself when those sirens went off!
Saturday 12 May. We cycled across the bridge to climb the famous "amphitheatre" of vineyards that produce the famous Piesporter Goldtropfchen wines (as served by Auric Goldfinger to James Bond). The steep path led us up to a plague chapel, then onto some very nice views. Madam decided that she didn't want to descend the very steep path back to the parked bikes, so we had to find a, ahem, "short cut", which led us on a very long hike back to Minheim. Cycling on to Piesport, we enjoyed sampling a few wines at the various Weinstube before watching a late middle-aged couple on guitars mangling English and Oirish folk songs. These songs really do not lend themselves to the fierce accuracy of exact diction!
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| Plague chapel |
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| Our Van from across the River |
On Sunday it rained. It poured. There were thunderstorms in the night and Debs got up
hearing gushing water, then remembered we had parked next to a gully. The forecast wasn't good so we moved onto Zell, but the rain continued all day, so a day in the van seemed to be the most sensible thing to do.
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| Zell in the rain |
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Zell
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