For the past couple of days I’ve been in Luxembourg staying with my friends Dora and Pavel, who took hospitality to new levels; I was so well fed I was surprised my bike didn’t collapse under me when I mounted to leave!
The ride out of Luxemburg was great, nice easy roads made for cycling and mostly downhill. I went through Luxembourg’s wine region (took about five minutes) and crossed into Germany at Schengen over the Meuse river.

Germany apparently has excellent cycle routes, which I initially ignored as they told me that if I took them my destination of Saarbrucken would be 130km rather than the 70 km I expected.
I wondered quite quickly if I’d made a mistake as I made a 300m height increase out of the village of Perl and wove my way through farm roads not marked on my map…Surprisingly through luck and dead reckoning I ended up where I expected and on a cycle route along the river Saar that got me to my destination faster than expected.
The ride today was easily the best, all that food must have given me energy as I whizzed along.  Before I dropped down to the river I rode along a ridge for about 20 km with amazing views all around and perfect weather. If the rest of the ride to Geneva is the same I’ll be very happy.