This morning I tried to get to the city of Luxembourg, but no luck. A fair wind slowed my progress frustratingly. I got as far as the village of Merten, just across the border into the duchy of Luxembourg. It wasn't all that far really, but I was beat. The last few kilometres I had been cycling on a pavement along an express way, which stopped abruptly in Merten. I couldn't see any other option but to get onto the expressway or to turn back. As the road had been shitty from the Luxembourg border already, I decided I didn't want to risk my life another for a few hours. So I turned back, pissed off. With the wind now giving me a shove back to Trier, I worked the pedals like a maniac. My average speed over the fifty or so kilometres was near 33 kilometres an hour, which on a pannier-laden bike going over narrow and bumpy cycling paths is exceptional. In Trier, I grabbed a train to Thionville, hoping that in France (home of the Tour de France) a cyclist would fare rather better than in Luxembourg. I got there near 4pm. The hostel near the station didn't open for a few more hours, so I bought a French SIM card for my phone and sat down at the Moselle to munch on a cake I had brought from Trier. When it did open, the hostel wasn’t a delight. I got a weird old bloke as a room mate who wouldn't stop speaking incomprehensible French. I pretended to be English, told him I found him 'rather annoying actually'. It seemed to work.

Labels: travel