Another rainy night, and the downpour eased up just long enough to do the washing up and the view wasn’t too bad. It’s very rural and must be quite magical when the sun shines.
Kim thought she saw a stork this morning, apparently they have been reintroduced into the Alsace area around Strasbourg. There’s no photographic evidence but ‘it was definitely too big to be a heron’!
Next was the visit John had been waiting for, the St Louis-Arzviller inclined plane, An almost vertical boat lift located on the Marne au Rhine canal which enables the canal to cross the Vosges Mountains. It opened in 1969 replacing a run of 17 locks.
Google promised us a 15 minute walk along the canal, very cold and wet!
We couldn’t find a way through but were tantalisingly close.
Finally our walk was abandoned and we drove up the hill. Caution was thrown to the wind and we parked as near to the entrance as we could in an area reserved for buses, It was very wet!
The weather was so bad, we didn’t have to pay to wander round.
This extraordinary piece of engineering lifts boats up a 44.5m climb across the Vosges Massif threshold in minutes.
We’d hoped to do the boat trip but it was very cold and raining hailstones, have we mentioned the weather?
Just before reaching the Plan Incliné, we’d noticed a very shiny glass crystal shop and cafe and that was where we chose to dry off.
We arrived just in time to see a glass making demonstration. In about 10 minutes this talented man had made a very quirky glass stork. The best bit? It was warm in front of the furnaces and we started to steam gently as we dried out. There was a debate as to whether to stay there and make a mad dash to Calais on Tuesday!
Some of the glass was truly stunning. Kim was taken with the spiders which were about the size of your hand. Luckily we didn’t need to bring one home
Our route to Luxembourg avoided motorways and tolls. We drove through more rain, hail and snow.
Roads were narrow in places but often perfectly straight and really quiet which helped our journey along
The sun put in an appearance, but not for long
We passed through the village of Rauwiller and we’re surprised to see this unusual rockery feature.
We snuck into Luxembourg on a minor road, over the Moselle River via a bizarre section of cobbles. It was hard work in the camper.
Finally, why use bollards when you can paint trees white
Initial impressions of Luxembourg are that it’s very expensive apart from fuel which is only just over £1/lite. Our camp site is very smart and organised, we have even been issued with a set of site rules that must be followed.
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