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Stage 22 - Schengen to Wasserbillig via Trier 70km (24-Jul-2019)

All good things come to an end (more about that later). Today's stage along the River Moselle was a late addition into our itinerary; more opportunistic than anything else. We decided to spend a couple of days in Luxembourg, 1 day visiting Luxembourg city, (which is one big construction site at the moment) which we did yesterday and 1 day to ride somewhere, which is what we did today on a seriously hot day with the temperatures hitting 38deg.
Early start to catch the 9.05am bus to Schengen, where the treaty to open up the European borders was signed, yes, local buses to take bikes. Un loaded our bikes on arrival at Schengen and made our way a few 100 meters to the magnificent bike path on the Luxembourg bank of River Moselle; the other bank is Germany, to the town of Trier (Karl Marx's birthplace) in Germany. Must admit the river appeared a tad untidy but the landscape of vineyards were breath taking.





Stopped a few time to take some photos of birdlife, towns and much needed shelter from the sun along the way.








Crossed the border into Germany in Wasserbillig, which also happened to be our end destination to take the train back to Luxembourg city.


On arrival in Trier, headed straight into the town centre; very pretty but didn't get to enjoy it as much as we would have liked, as the soaring heat was unbearable. Mind you, there were hoards of people in the town centre in-spite of the heat with ice cream parlours doing great business. Yes, we had some too.





A quick turnaround and we were on our way back to Wasserbillig to catch our train. I don't think we have ever ridden in such extreme heat. It was a relief to get into an air conditioned train back to Luxembourg city. The rest of the day was spent chilling catching up on news, emails etc. followed by another Tuna Salad for dinner. we are done with Tuan Salads for a while.
Coming back to my opening sentence, I'll repeat it, All good things come to an end. This is the end of our tour and here are some numbers that we are very proud of:

- 22 Stages

- 1648km cycled

- 75km average per stage

- 1 flat tyre

- 4 hours of cycling in rain

- 6 countries ridden through (Switzerland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg)

- 2 weeks in England without bikes ( and surprisingly, no rain)

- 0 falls off the bike 😎

Another notable statistic is how well Ursula coped with and enjoyed her first ever bike tour. I for sure enjoyed having her with me; we had a lot of fun.
Our sincere thanks to:
- Kevin Ellwood for creating the routes for us and his continued encouragement.
- Tobias and Susan for their generous and warm hospitality in Gouda.
- Ingrid for her generous and warm hospitality in Paderborn.
- Tommy, Moni, Christoff, Peti and Therese for their generous and warm hospitality in Switzerland.
- Suresh, Rajkumari, Darshan and Tara or their generous and warm hospitality in London.
- Lena for her generous and warm hospitality in Wiltshire.
- Jessie for her generous and warm hospitality in London.
- Our Airbnb and Booking.com hosts for their warm hospitality.
- Our friends and family for their encouragement and support.
- All the kind and helpful people that we came across on the tour.
Thank you for following the tour through reading our blog.








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