Day 5 { may 30th 2002 }
“Serenity ”
Luxemburg is beautiful. So much eye-candy. I cruise alongside a canal, joining the people who are lazing the sunday away. The camping at the end of the day is cheap, but it does not take long to find out why...
I leave the camping around 12 o’clock. My clothes, which I washed yesterday evening, are still not dry...
A washing line is improvised and although the sun has climbed up rapidly into the sky this morning and does it’s very best;
my shirts and towels do not seem to get dry.
I look at my watch. “No can do. Have to get on the road.”
So I buy a coin for the dryer, and half an hour later I head south once more.
Hard to imagine, but the landscape today is
even more pleasurable to watch than yesterday. More grass, more rocks, more woods... The occasional castle can be seen high
on rocks against perfectly green slopes. They must be true havens of silence and serenity.
So is the ‘green tunnel’
I ride through for about 3 miles. I’m flanked by rocky slopes on both sides of the road. Dense foliage forms the roof.
Another superlative when it comes to ‘breathtaking’...
I must have seen about every possible shade of green by now.
It NEVER seems to bore me.
A pity I can’t share this with someone else.
“...the numerous vine-yards on the steep, rocky hills”
In the vicinity of Junglinster, I pass the huge towers of Radio Luxemburg.
When down-town,
my stomach gives a tell-tale sign that it needs to be filled, so I stop to eat spaghetti.
According to my map, I will encounter the Moezel at the city of Wormeldange. It‘s bristling with people
there as well. Quite a lot of older cyclist and families, who make use of the perfect cycle-path on the
other side of the river. That’s where I am heading too. Have to cross a bridge first. It takes a
bit getting used to, all the people here...all the attention. The cycle path reminds me of the trip to Maastricht.
It‘s about 30 km’ s alongside the river. It has it’ s advantages; you don’ t have to use your map, and so it’ s time to relax.
The asphalt is of very good quality, and the numerous wine-yards on the steep rocky hills, bathing in sunshine, offer pleasurable eye-candy. The temperature has risen to around 28 degrees celcius, and lot’s of people spend their day at the banks of the Moezel. Just a typical sunday. You know, lazing the day away. Looking at other people. A few miles further on, I join a small group of German mountainbikers. We talk for a while, but they are a bit too slow for me. So I ‘hit the pedals’, after having received my road-map, which fell off my pannier.
“...it’s just me, myself and my armpits in that tent”
In Schengen (yep, where the treaty was signed), I run into trouble for a short while after having crossed the bridge. I have a hard time finding the passage to the road on the riverbank. It should be really easy! After having put away the map, and relying on my own natural pigeon-navigation instinct (uch uch...), I head south once more. After 4 more miles (after a ‘trial of strengh’ with a 50 year old (I guess...) racing-cyclist...hi hi...) I crash at a small, yet totally suitable camping at Sierck-les-Bains. This is in France. No showers. Euh...well, no problem. It’ s just me, myself and my armpits in that tent anyway.
“...to ride the whole mobile aluminium palace in place”
The low price I have to pay is due to the fact that every half hour, a freight-train rattles by, blowing the occasional whistle. Wheeee...that keeps your eyes wide open at night! Cheaper then Red-Bull. Praise the man who invented the ear-plugs.
My neighbours arrive. A couple from Germany with a double-axis caravan. Satellite dish, microwave and remote control to ride the whole damn mobile aluminium palace in place. But the one thing they could not afford was a full-blown air-conditioning, because it HAS to stand in the shade. I look at my tent...low-tech rules!
I crawl into my tent around 9. Don’t know what else to do. Counting dead gnats, most of wich fell prey to my armpit-odour. Gotcha!.
