August 6, 2016
Metz to Saarbrücken
Today we took a nice bike trail out of Metz along the river as far as the bridge over a small tributary that feeds the Moselle. It was very nice and followed what looked to be the old walls of a fortification. The walls are to our right and the river to our left.
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For a Saturday morning, it was pretty quiet. A late Saturday morning. We departed somewhere around 11:30. I have a friend, Jerry Cowden, who likes to remind me that the mantra of touring cyclists is an early start. Well, we are doing 50 miles today, and if we can't finish at a reasonable hour even with a late start, we should give it up. We haven't yet, so tally ho!
And, much to my usual chagrin but to today's pleasure, we started climbing immediately after crossing the bridge. Almost anyway.
We had to navigate a few intersections while I instructed Mark on what the Germans will expect of us cyclists. If there is a parallel path, you probably will be expected to be on it. And there were a few of these as we made our way through the outer reaches of the city. Some were hard to identify. Sidewalk? Bike trail? Bikes permitted? Or not?
Eventually we stuck to the road. The bicycle sidewalks got narrow and bumpy, and there is nothing worse than climbing on a bumpy anything (road or otherwise).
So up we went. It wasn't tough. I think we are in good shape and as ready for the Alps as we ever will be. So we knocked it out. Maybe I have good gearing, but even an 8% grade hardly fazes me. Mark is a stronger rider, but I often pass him on climbs as he goes out of the saddle, whereas I stay seated. That allows me to gear down and overtake him. Standing, he needs resistance (and higher gearing) to climb. Seated, I just need a good cadence (and lower gears give me that)!
But we both still go up!
From there it was easy riding. Downhill into a valley that was made more spectacular by our diversion through the Forêt Domaniale de Villers-Befey.
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That led to a town called Burtoncourt (how English), where Mark suddenly had mechanical issues. It turned out to be rather minor. One of his spare spokes had come loose and was making a racket. We stopped, of course, and soon figured out the problem and were shortly thereafter being helped by a friendly Frenchman with a pair of needle-nose pliers. Problem solved in five minutes, and a new friend made in less.
From there it was a few more ups and downs before the valley bottomed out and we crossed La Nied, a river in the Lorraine that feeds the Saar.
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After that, another climb (of course). But that was the last real climb of the day. From there it was pretty much downhill to the Saar.
One notable road was Route de Dalem, which was paved but narrow and lightly traveled, mostly by locals. It passed through heavily forested areas (that had some logging activity) before descending into a river valley that took us to the German border. Such as it is!
Given all the excitement and the calling of volunteers by France to protect the border, it was a non-event. The EU lives on! But culturally, you could tell we were in another country even without the language barrier. Just the feel was different. Of course, the architecture as well. And the bike infrastructure.
I have mentioned before that you need to watch RWGPS. Well, our bad. Germany has lots of good bike infrastructure, but it doesn't translate well into RWGPS, even when using the OSM Cycle maps. There doesn't seem to be a distinction between the quality of trails. So, eventually we were on a hard-packed natural trail but ended up on something not even as good as a foot trail.
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We quickly ditched that and took the adjacent main road, L169/L167/L168, to Wadgassen. It was an easy road to ride, and the Germans behave very well around cyclists. Mostly, I suspect because they have laws that make them do so! From there, we jumped on the Saar River bike trail all the way to Saarbrücken, a very pleasant 11-mile ride . . . to say the least.
The Saar is a pretty industrial part of Germany, so we saw our share of manufacturing plants and whatnot, including at least one barge on the river (it was a Saturday after all). But the highlight was Saarbrücken, which is having its city festival today.
And the Germans like to party. I fear we will be up late tonight!
Today's ride: 50 miles (80 km)
Total: 312 miles (502 km)
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