Day 2 - Waterloo to Kedange-sur-Canner

We awoke to the sound of the roadworks outside the hotel, not to mention Grizzly's feckin alarm, which had a 2 minute repeat. As if that wasn't enough, he dropped the change out of his trousers all over the laminate flooring! Eejit!

 

Last night, after failing to cop off with any middle aged Belgian crumpet ;-), we made our way back to the hotel. The bar wasn't doing any food and as the hotel's restaurant was out of commission, we had to go pizza, next door. Pizza and a fifth beer that is! Pizza was very nice and the beer too but soon it was time for bed. As I struggled to focus on the tablet to do Day 1 blog, Grizzly was snoring as soon as his head hit the pillow. Blog done, it was my turn to sleep.

 

Day 2 was bright and sunny. We got ready and went down for brekkie. Grizzly had been out seeing to his bike beforehand, so was a bit more advanced in his prep to leave. One of my main worries was transporting the beer glass without it showering shards into my entire collection of pants! That sorted and everything else packed we hit the road. Incidentally, the buffet brekkie was a long way short of the €12 we had paid, being the usual cold meet, cheese and bread offering. We had our fill though.

 

We set off, Tomtom indicating an eta at our fuel stop some three and a quarter hours away. Hmm. Our visit today was to be Hackenberg Fort, the largest fort on the Maginot line. At 14:30 there would be an English guided tour. I said to Grizzly we needed to arrive by 14:00. For some reason (donkey for Woody) I had thought the journey was only going to take two and a half hours, so we hadn't made a definite leaving time. On arrival at our fuel stop in Luxembourg, it became apparent that we wouldn't be at the fort in time for the tour. In fact, after a road closure forced us to detour, we didn't actually arrive till about 15:00. Ee-aaw! We could still get in though, for the next tour but that was in German! Not to worry, we were given an English translation card and the lady did try to explain the odd bit in English for us.

 

The weather had been glorious the whole way down but the fort was definitely the highlight of this day. It is an unbelievably massive complex, built into the hillside. The tour takes 2 hours, part walking through the tunnels and part train ride, on the original trains, to get you to one of the gun blocks, complete with working sunken turret, some 1.6km away! Well worth a visit.

 

 

As we prepared to leave, the lady guide stopped to talk to us, asking us where we were tavelling to. Turns out she was a child during the war and was evacuated to avoid the Russian offensive in 1944. She has two daughters who live in Munich, so was interested to learn that we were going there this week and of course, to Dacau.

 

On the main road up to the fort, there was an American tank. It seemed fitting that we give Dudley's bandana an airing at this point, so photos were taken, before we rode the 5 miles to our hotel.

 

Unfortunately, the lady in the hotel doesn't speak English, none of them do, so I'm doing my best with the schoolboy French I have to make myself understood and to understand them. Could do with my Elly with me I reckon. Grizzly can barely speak English, so he's got feck all chance of French! We freshened up and took a walk, very brief, to see what Kedange has to offer. Answer, nothing, outside of the hotel, so we have had our dinner here and partaken of beers 6 and 7. We'll have another brekkie here tomorrow, only €8 this time and then hit the road again. Today we hit our third country, Luxembourg, tomorrow it'll be number four, as we advance into Germany. Tomorrow is a pure riding day, along the Castle Road, with no pre-planned stops. The evening could prove entertaining though, as we shall be in Germany on the night of their world cup semi-final with Brazil. Come on you

Germs!

 

Time for bed I think. Grizzly is already driving them home, as I write. Until Day 3.