Metz, and through to Toul.

TRIER  (left this off last blog)

Leaving Trier we pass the red cliffs of Konz and continue up the Mosel. Passing the oldest still standing useable Roman bridge north of the Alps..                               

As we move away from the German/Luxembourg area into France the scenery really changes. We loose the lovely vine covered slopes to become wooded and into the flat cereal fields.

Thionville, and the Boys off shopping for liquid supplies..

Marie Molloy arrives at METZ railway station from London to visit us for 5 days before heading back home to Kevin in NZ. 

Moored in Metz, with a fantastic view next to the Old Church, which some people will recognise, and drinks again with this KIWI boat we keep bumping into…another great night.!!

Metz Cathedral at night, and the girls out for a meal. We bought some lovely cakes from a cake shop for desert but when we went to eat them, they had collapsed and melted!!  They tasted ok but didn’t look nearly as pretty.

Kids having fun on dads boat during school hols.

Different scenery again as we head into Toul.

Weather again very hot and humid so we had to finally succumb to the fresh water hose on the marina,,,, and proof that the crew works!!!

TOUL, and finally we get to see the light show at the Cathedral, sitting under a big golfing umbrella in the rain……lovely but not nearly as dramatic as Reims. ( please excuse the dirty finger print on the lens)

Marie left us here in Toul for London and we are going to potter around, go and pick up our car from St Jean de Losne and watch the water levels in the canals. And maybe visit an Ikea if we pass one  !!!

The French are very good at closing off bits of canals for a week or so if they aren’t happy with the water levels..   Emma and a girl friend from NZ are meant to be arriving into Epinal on the 26th August to spend a week with us. On the 16th August the branch to Epinal is meant to be re-opening,   so watch this space.

Not sure why we are worrying when you can repaint your boat in any colour!!

You never know what you may have to do. This is a picture of June Hall ( fellow boaties from NZ) and another as they try to rescue une brebis that had been stuck in the canal for a few days. ( photo curtsy of the Halls.)

                        Knew there was a reason to carry life-buoys on the canals,, ( look how deep the water is !!)  Well done June.

And thank-you people for your nice comments about our blog.. glad you enjoy it. ( and it saves us doing all those photo albums when we get back.) (heh heh)

Trier, up the Mosel River to France, & Metz.

Had a quiet day down to Schweich on Max’s birthday. He had his badge and balloons for the day and then we had a quiet meal out so gently easing himself into official retirement.

Max was humbled by every-bodies good wishes, texts, emails, face-book tags and phone-calls.      THANKYOU.                                                                                                His first pension check gets paid on 6th August, and can buy him over 36 cans of his favourite beer a day or 13 bottles of Lidl Rose,  so he is a very happy boy..!! 

Visited TRIER by train. Its an amazing place that has the most Roman ruins outside       Roman. Porta Nigra  (180 AD ), known as The Black Gate, it is built of white sandstone blocks that have weathered to black. The builders didn’t use mortar but bound the bricks together with iron clamps and lead seals..

Caesar over-ran this area in 56 BC destroying the highly developed Celtic culture and founded the first towns. They built the mighty twin stone gates,(above),  large spa bath complexes, a racing course, a bridge, a large amphitheatre and numerous other buildings that are still standing.  Trier became an imperial roman residence with 80,000 inhabitants, the largest town north of the Alps.     In 475 Trier fell to the Franks, and then ownership varied.  The Cathedral, first built in 1040 and added to with St Mary’s Basilica ,one of the two first gothic church buildings to be built in the German Empire in the 13C.

Above part of the old bathing house,The Caldarium of the Imperial thermal springs, and the impressive Constantine Basilica (310BC), and below The Electoral Palace.

We explored the remains of the Roman Amphitheatre, built in the 1st c.AD. as a venue for gladiatorial games. It could hold 20,000 spectators in 26 rows of seats, with the arena  covering 70m x 50m. It still has the 15 cages around the edge of the arena for the animals.

 

In ancient times they dug a sub basement area under the arena that also had a lifting platform to allow for changing scenery etc during plays.

Robert & Sue, with daughter Becky, arrive in Schweich and we have a real birthday party for Max.  ( causing the worst hangover Lucy has had in years).

Boat problems…Where do we start ??????  Boating may be fun but its not cheap… We have been fairly lucky with Kiwi Rose.  After two winters of the starter batteries being buggered and having to buy new ones, this year H2O at St Jean de Losne quoted to install rocket switches, new batteries etc for only 1400 euros!!!… but a fellow boatie suggested we just buy new batteries and then totally disconnect them each winter.. so only 400 euros later and problem solved !!!

Then Max and his paranoia about the water pump breaking down has carried a spare for 2 years,  well now I have a crowing husband as it broke down and stopped the other night.. The German Marina in Schweich came down within 2 hours and because we had the pump, they only charged us 25 euros for the 20mins it took the guy to install it. ( so efficient)  AND,  although I now have to grovel to Max, I am really pleased too because this one is silent which showed that the last one must have been struggling for ages.

But the big issue has been the smoking engine, and Wok & Sam will be aware we have been having issues for a year or 2.  Anyway short story is we had the injectors taken out and cleaned last winter.. It seemed better for a while but then became temperamental again with starting and still smoking. So in Strasbourg we had the injectors taken out, checked, had to buy six new ones as 2 were dead and the others stuffed. Again set off down the Rhine, and after a few days the smoke was back and we seemed to have an increasing deisel/oil slick.  End story is that we will be returning to Germany to winter, where these lovely efficient people will take the engine out of the boat,((UGH !! ), and rebore the pistons, rebuild the engine and pop it back.. Amazing what a compression test will show you and we are not sure why we never had one before. So we not going back to France for this winter but we will be just outside Trier in Germany.

Apart from that we are OK.  !!!!!

On our way back to Metz we met up with ‘’Beau Jolie’’ ,  Sue & Robert, and Becky  in Thionville.

Up the Mosel, Koblenz to Trier.

Well, the Mosel River is beautiful. Slow flowing to the Rhine fast pace.Pretty little villages and towns full of beautiful old half timber quaint old houses and churches. The hills rise up from one side or both with vineyards sprawled on the steep sides. The vines seem to be planted in the most odd and non-accessible slopes, The weather has cooled to some mornings to 12 degrees….we will never complain about the heat again.. just when we are in a clean river,,,its too cold to swim.

Joanna & David Lynch-Watson joined us for 5 days at Winningen, leaving their camper van behind to be picked up later. Luckily the Castle Eltz that we wanted to visit was a short drive away in the hills so we had a day out before we left.

       We had a English guided tour which was lead by a dour faced humourless young German,.            ( can’t win them all).

   Set on the valley with the River Eltz , the Castle was built on a massive rock over a 1000yrs ago .The Eltz family survived well on the forest & natural resources , and of course claiming tolls on the medieval trade route through to the Mosel River. Despite many wars the Etlz Castle survived intact, mainly due to the families far reaching political and social networks. The castle has been in the family for 33 generations. No matter which army was in the region, the Eltzes managed to use their influence to protect themselves and they still own it. It also has the most amazing treasury( one of Europe’s best) that is full of medieval goldsmiths work and large silver and gold statues.

Visited pretty little villages on the way up river. 

Max visited a local vintner and had a wine tasting in a little village called Lof.

Showing river flood levels  Villages along the Mosel River.

Old boys on a day out!!!!

Passing little towns and villages along the way to Cochem where we stayed for 5 nights. The weather was changeable from high wind, to rain, to sunny days. These villages are just full of cafes, old half-timbered houses, and little wine tasting places…so much to choose from. The prices are reasonable too, about 4-6 euros a bottle. Some places you can even buy a little vine plant of the vineyard.

COCHEM.

Cochem initally settled with Celts, then Roman, then everybody else in between. The Castle was meant to have been started in the 11C. Again the same tale of wars, and towns/castles being burnt down, it has been rebuilt again over time. Cochem gained money easily in the past by just putting a chain across the river and collecting taxes…. clever lot these Germans.

We had a lovely tour of this richly preserved castle by a lovely humerous German lady. Just a few photos as we have so many and choosing is so difficult.

 What we have learnt is that the Germans have no reason to love the French at all, as it seems they did most of the burning, destroying and destruction of these lovely old castles and towns through the ages. The 1st and 2nd world wars are really just a tiny blip in European history. Europe history is just so confusing and so very violent.

                       Cochem Castle on night.

Met up with lovely French friends Francois & Sylive . They part own a vineyard in Bourgogne and their white chardonay was just what we had been missing from NZ…like a excellent south island wine… lovely lovely.

 

Passed the building of a new bridge across the valley that was over 250m in the air…Must be a 20yr project.

The thing about the vineyards is that will plant vines on any surface that has a ltitle soil , on cliff faces, scrauny little scrags of rock and any size area. Its difficult to catch in photos but we tried.

  And the spraying is either done by hand ( cos of the inaccessibility),  tractor or mini helicopter. This one was attached to a truck up on the path that let him down and            then winches him back up again.

  

The Mosel River is beautiful, little picturesque villages with their churches, ruins and pretty little half wooden houses.  The sides of the river valley, over 200 kms of vine covered slopes.…that’s a lot of vino !!!

Bad thing about the Mosel is that we found it tricky to always find places that could take a boat our size and that was a bit nerve racking  (and more expensive than France).heyho… Goodness knows how it all works when the River is popular.

31st July,,,,,,,65th Birthday morning….. Pension starts!!!!!

And on to Trier.