A couple of fill ups before heading back to France, Metz.
Bonjour mon ami. Yes, it’s Julie here, I have finally been deemed well enough to write a blog post – but I’ll still get Jay to check it for me! It’s been ages since I’ve written one of these, I hope I haven’t forgotten how to.
The last couple of weeks have been strange, since getting the cold shivers a week last Friday I’ve been functioning, but not really feeling anything. During the last week at home we attended a friend’s wedding, finally met Joanne & Craig (aka The Bumbles), I had my head shaved for charity, we packed Zagan and we said farewell to family and friends – but it was all behind a stinky fog. So, first of all apologies to everyone who we did see during that time as I wasn’t on my usual top form and secondly, apologies in advance to Jay as I have no idea what I’ve packed.
The thing that kept me going was knowing that once we were off the ferry I could stop, and stop I did. I retreated under a sleeping bag on one of Zagan’s benches and slept while Jay looked after me and did everything – he was amazing. It’s taken a further week to start to feel human again, and while I’m not back up to eating ice cream level just yet, I can now manage the odd bit of cake – most important as we like to treat ourselves occasionally. We’ve slowly been doing a bit more each day, when the weather allows, but it is nice to be in a position where we can just chill in the van and not feel guilty for not doing anything. Jay still thinks I am poorly because of my shaved head, something he associates with sickness, but I’m not sure which will happen first; he’ll get used to it, or it’ll all grow back, we’ll have to wait and see.
Last night I had my first semi-decent night’s sleep, which is strange considering where we were parked. As aeroplanes seemingly skimmed Zagan’s roof on approach to Luxembourg airport, and the sirens and noise of the city carried on around us, we joked about them being like waves on the beach and were soon fast asleep. I woke around 5am with a coughing fit and had a peep out of the curtains, the car park around us was virtually empty – does everyone in Luxembourg city work until 10pm? Who knows.
This morning we were up with the alarm, our parking ticket ran out at 9.30am so we skipped breakfast and headed off towards the city’s big supermarket, Auchan. As we arrived we were among office blocks and soon discovered that the supermarket was in a huge commercial centre, the car park to which was underground. As Zagan was a tad too tall for the ramp, Jay drove around while I punched in the co-ordinates of our stop for the night on the banks of the Moselle river at Remich.
Driving out of the city we were going in the direction of the American War Cemetery where General Patton is buried. We missed the turning for the car park, so decided to carry on, until another sign-posted turn appeared, it was obviously fate that we go, so we did. We parked up and I opted to stay with Charlie in Zagan, I’ve seen too many war graves which is a terrible thing to say, but sometimes you just can’t face another one. Jay headed off for a look around and to pay his respects just as the sun came out, when he returned he was, as always, visibly moved.
To lighten the mood we headed for a near-by Aldi to get some supplies in, not that the cupboards will be running low for another month at least, but we do love a foreign(ish) supermarket. €50 later, our cupboards are bursting, and we also have a slab of Belgium beer (€0.88/l – that’s 38p a pint!), lots of treats for the ‘naughty’ cupboard and a smattering of fresh veggies – it was bad move shopping without having breakfast.
Setting off again we found ourselves at the border with Germany just under 20 minutes later. It must be great living in Luxembourg as it appears you can commute to the capital in less than an hour no matter where you live. Passing a plethora of petrol stations poised on a hill waiting to fill up German cars with cheap fuel, we turned right at the border and drove through the town, which was mainly cheap alcohol shops, and out along the Moselle.
We parked up at a slipway into the water and while I was glad to have stopped, I was starving, I also felt, well I guess the word for it is bored. I really didn’t fancy walking back into the town as I hadn’t seen anything on the way through that excited me. The most interesting thing I could think to do would be to walk over the bridge to Germany and back, and having done that a few times elsewhere even the novelty of that has worn off. I dared to voice my feelings to Jay and he suggested we eat, have a look around, do some planning and then have a long run south tomorrow.
Next to us the Moselle was a brown swollen torrent under grey skys, interrupted only by the occasional passing barge, several times wider and longer than Zagan. Around us the fields rose up the hills, lined with bare vines waiting for some sunshine. After a spot of lunch we both felt revived, but then Jay said he was starting to feel the same as me, so we headed off. Sorry Luxembourg, maybe it was the weather or still getting over a cold or maybe it’s just that you seem very similar to England but with cheaper prices, whatever it was we needed to move on.
We drove to Shengen, the place where the agreement was signed to remove the borders, to fill up with fuel and LPG but it was so small that we drove past the turning for the station and ended up on the motorway. It wasn’t worth a 12km detour to get back, so Jay carried on while I stabbed at the satnav, finally getting her to agree to take us to a fuel station back near Luxembourg city – sometimes it’s good that it’s such a small country!
We finally found our station and filled up. Zagan was treated to some Premium Diesel at €0.97/l (still cheaper than normal diesel back home) and tried out the final adapter in our LPG kit, topping up the tanks at €0.40/l. Fully laden Zagan waddled out onto the motorway and headed south back into France.
We arrived in Metz and found the free aire next to the Moselle river (N49.12384, E6.16898). Around it the car park was full, cars driving around trying to find a space, no such problem for us as there are spaces reserved for Camping Cars, and generally people don’t park in them – respect. We headed into the town for a look around and considering we’d only chosen this place because it was a free stopover, we were both pleasantly surprised.
Metz (pronounced Mess) is a student town with an interesting past, it has changed hands so many times it’s a wonder it knows where it is. We wandered around the old French town, then into the newer German old town. Jay went for a walk around the cathedral while Charlie and I visited the tourist office for a map and some information.
The sun even came out to warm us for a while as we watched the world go by – students finishing their classes for the day, fairground folk setting up the rides for the night and countless shoppers taking advantage of the sales.
On our way back to Zagan the rain started so I nipped into a shop selling chocolate treats, much deserved after a couple of hours of walking, and the perfect accompaniment to a warm drink while we plan our route south.
Ju x
Bonus pic – does anyone know what these signs mean (not the direction ones), we often see them abroad, but don’t have a clue what they mean!
We think the top on is ‘no explosives’. The lower one is a prohibition on vehicles carrying dangerous contaminating liquids.
The exploding car means no flamable materials in car allowed, i.e lpg, not sure about the other.
You will find every sort of sign and their meaning at this linkhttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_European_road_signs
I reckon everywhere looks better in sunshine so not surprised you are feeling that way in Luxembourg, head for the sun.
Top Sign = No entry for vehicles carrying explosive or inflammable goods.
Bottom Sign = Access prohibited to vehicles transporting goods likely to pollute water.
A couple of days ago I was putting together a first idea/map tour for a long motorhome venture inc Benidorm then up to Germany [Bad Nauheimfor]for an Elvis Festival via Neuschwanstein Castle [Chitty Bang] onto AUSTRIA:>Salzburg [Sound of Music] I had just included LUXEMBURG:> Luxembourg City for 2 Days then coincidentally looked at your blog and you had just moved next to Luxembourg so was hoping you would nip over …Oh and Neuschwanstein Castle was also used for the film where eagles dare…just straying abit here…The Signs..The Top one is : No Vehicles Carrying Explosives, as for the below sign same as: Polish traffic sign prohibiting thoroughfare of motor vehicles carrying flammable goods or goods dangerous to water reserves
Maybe if they had used those top signs in Northern Ireland, we might have saved half of Belfast :)
I’d agree with Jeremy, the ‘no explosives’ may normaly be on entrance to tunnels (the Black-wall, London has ‘no gas’ resrtiction which is ignored by everyone), and the ‘Red Tanker’ may be for bridges over water with particularly fragile wildlife or SSSI’s.
Ju, so glad that you are feeling better now. Loving reading all your posts and eagerly look forward to seeing where you are each day as well as reading about the food! Particularly liked the pictures of the chocolates. On the subject of pictures, I read on my iPhone and often notice that the photos don’t scale so I can’t see the right hand side. I can’t click to open either. This post of Ju’s didn’t have that problem and I could see the whole photo. I assumed it was a problem with how I’m using (and I’m not competent enough to change the settings) but now wondering whether that’s not. Not sure if others have same problem so thought I’d let you know. Doesn’t affect my enjoyment though! Keep up the hard work, looking forward to seeing the Alps and would love to take our van to Sweden so can’t wait to read those posts later in the year. Claire x
Times Tables… Just catching up on your blogs as not seen and email recently. In one of the photos on this blog I see you don’t appear to have a main table but what looks like a swing out table. How do you get on with this type and is it sturdy to lean on, eat on, etc. Can you both eat from it (via plates?). We have a table which is getting on the way and like the idea of the swing out table but they always seems flimsy.
Good question Steve. In a nutshell it isn’t as sturdy as a fixed table, but it does the job. I’ve glued a second table underneath the top, which helps a lot. We can use two laptops on it (just) and two of us can easily eat with plates, wine glasses etc. It’s easy to get it to one side too, so we have stacks of space in here. A compromise, but one which works for us Steve. Cheers, Jay