Metz: Cathedral and market

May 25, 2024

We started the day with the hotel breakfast. It was a good decision, the variety of fresh melons and strawberries along with the usual baguette, cheeses and cold meats, musli, cakes, and croissants gave you plenty of choice. The breakfast room was in the main part of the hotel, our room is in a connected building with a diffent entrance.

The entry hallway, old but well maintained, not shabby or maybe a bit shabby chic

And we are here at the top of the stairs. Without our asking, the hotel people offered us a room on the first floor in the main building. We accepted. Excellent customer service here.

We took a stroll after breakfast. Still no photo of the cathedral facing the hotel, the light wasn't right. But we walked around cathedral and discovered today is market day. What a wonderful scene, brilliant displays of textiles, vegetables and flowers begged to have their pictures taken.

We meandered around the cathedral and then went in. The Metz Cathedral is a beautiful example of Gothic architecture. What pleased me most was that there was a group of musicians in the transept next to the altar rehearsing medieval music for a concert. I get kind of choked up when I hear musicians rehearsing. It brings back memories from my days up through college when I played French horn in differnt orchestras and groups. So this was the highlight for me, not the lovely stained glass windows or the lofty arches.

Stairs leading to the cathedral, our hotel in the background

After our walk we packed our bags and moved to our new room, only one flight up. Then time to ride to the station. Susan was due to arrive at 1:20 on the train from Nancy and we expected Kathleen an hour later.

The Metz train station is worth a visit, even if you aren't meeting someone or taking a train yourself. Hard to get a decent picture, though.

Susan's train ride went smoothly, she arrived on the dot. Kathleen wasn't so lucky. Trains and bikes aren't always as compatible as you might wish. Kathleen was faced with trains that don't take bikes, stairs and not enough time to make connections. But she made it. She let us know that she would be arriving two hours later than planned which wasn't a big problem for us. We rode the 1.8 km back to the hotel and returned for her arrival at 4:20.

(And just now my following text disappeared. Argh! My tablet won't reconnect to the internet so I'll Just do one finger typing on my phone. A short recap.)

Wonderful to finally meet her in person.

We gave ourselves an hour to rest up a little before we met for dinner, conversation and planning. At the table we got a chance to fill each other in on our biographies, the sort of things that don't make it into bicycle journals. Susan and Kathleen will eventually give a more detailed version of our evening together. Looking forward to an out and back ride together along the Moselle the next day, we said good night. It was a great day.

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Keith KleinHi,
Welcome back to France. And please pass on my greetings to Susan and Kathleen. I’ll be following along as normal.Cheers,
Keith
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6 months ago

Suzanne GibsonThanks, Keith ! Hallo from Kathleen and Susan!
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6 months ago

Rachael AndersonI’m so glad to see you all together!
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6 months ago