Bike and Barge, Part I

The famous German author, Hermann Hesse once wrote, "If I could choose my place of birth, I would consider Wurzburg." I concur; Wurzburg, Germany has very fast WiFi! What more could you ask for. Since I haven't really blogged since Exeter, England, though, I want to make a few posts to recap our last week. Wurzburg will be coming up.

Boarding the Boat

On Saturday morning, August 10th, we woke up nice and early. We had a good breakfast in the hotel. It was interesting because Toul is such a small town. We kept seeing the same couple when we walked around the town, when we went out to dinner, and then, again at breakfast.

After breakfast, we went to the store to stock up on candy and soda. I bought three 2-liter bottles of this delicious zero-calorie grapefruit carbonated water, and a bag of small candies, something like banana-flavored "Peeps". We also got some cheese and produce at the small market stalls.

After that, we headed out to the boat (sans luggage) to see when we should show up. The captain was washing down the decks and told us to come back at a quarter to three. We decided to walk around the city walls (below) and head over to the Cathedral.

The Cathedral was interesting. There were only a few people there, and Kathy wanted to get a picture in the cloisters.

Like most of the churches, the Toul Cathedral had its share of relics. These are the skulls of three saints, but I actually forgot to write down which saints they were.

It's very expensive to maintain these huge medieval churches, and, in a little town like Toul, without a lot of resources, the wear is really obvious. One of the large churches in town has huge cracks in the walls. (Kathy and I originally thought that it was abandoned.) Even the cathedral has nets hung from the ceiling to keep the debris from falling on the parishioners, and unwary tourists. We're talking huge pieces of plaster here, not just little flakes.

There is obviously no money to restore the frescoes on the walls either.

After we walked around (and made a long trip out of town to Cosa, a Wallmart clone to get some sandals for Kathy.) It was time to head back to the boat. There, we picked up our bikes and went for a short "get-acquainted-with-the-equipment" ride.

After dinner, we got acquainted with the other passengers. We had four French couples, three German couples along with one teenager, and us. One of the German couples was the people we had run into at the hotel and restaurant. One older German couple spoke English, as did all of the French passengers. The other Germans spoke only a little English. The tour guide (Jacques) and the boat owner (Sander) spoke no French. So, each tour briefing was given in two languages: German and English.

The first night, the boat stayed anchored in Toul, and we all walked over to the Cathedral to see another light show. This was the history of Toul and was nice, but not nearly as high-tech or awe-inspiring as the one at Reims.

Sunday: Our First Ride

The next morning, we were up for breakfast at 8:00 am (where we packed lunches to take with us on the road.) By 9:00 we were saddled up and ready for our first, short (15km) ride to the dock at Maron, France.

Before that, though, we rode the bikes back into Toul to take one last tour of the village. Since Kathy and I had spent the night there already, we decided to investigate the other parts of the city. As we walked along a back alley, we came across an Evangelical Church (rare in France), and went in and introduced ourselves. I wish we could have stayed for the service.

Instead, we set out for Maron. Along the way we rode through a lot of French villages with their characteristic architecture...

...two or three bakeries in a town of a few thousand people...

...and some interesting graffiti.

Some of the time we rode on the streets with the cars, especially when we needed to cross a bridge. The cars were all extremely respectful. No close-calls at all.

Most of the time, though, we rode on bike or hiking trails near the river. This first day, they were all paved. Later, though, we ran into some really rough patches. After riding for two hours, we arrived at the village of Villey-Le-Sec, where we left our bikes at the train station, and climbed up the hill to see the late 19th century fort.

The young German boy, Jonas, took a picture of us when we reached to top.

Finally about 3:00 PM, we rolled across the Moselle and saw the boat anchored at the dock.

Since we got to boat pretty early, Kathy and I decided to take a walk through the town of Maron. We walked up to the top of the hill, and looked at the cemetery.

Then, as we walked back to the boat, we stopped by the town washing troughs, fed with ice-cold water from the local spring. Even though it was very hot outside, it was really cool setting inside the covered washing area, back behind the church.