After another excellent breakfast, I couldn't eat it all again. And they have Honey Smacks, another touring tradition. I hope I don't get hayfever. (Yep, I did.) Feeling bloated I finally left around 9:30. Sigh, so much for an early start.
I decided to take the route indicated by the road signs today and it was a great choice. There was, as expected, a climb up and out of the town, but not the valley. All in all a very pretty area. I had a quite major climb around Berismenil, I was sure it was going to be a Col, but it wasn't :( After that the road was sort of rolling more or less along the top of the hills. Until we were getting close to the main town of the morning Houffalize, there was of course another climb followed by a short descent into town. I thought for sure that there would be a Col. Nope, none all day as it happens.
I stopped here for an Eclair and Fanta. I felt a bit guilty but it turned out to be a long time until the next food, so it was lucky that I did. From there I had another nice, up and down, section and then lo and behold, I was on the Luxembourg border. Just a sign of course, see photo. So, that's Belgium done :) The roads, which had been lovely and quite all day, where even lovelier and quieter in Luxembourg! I came to the town of Troine and I had a choice to make. Follow the signs and then decide at the intersection of a yellow road whether to use the yellow road, or take a short cut now and then have no choice. More or less fortunately I decided to follow the signs. It was good because when I got to the yellow road it was very windy and mildly busy. So now I could take plan B which was to follow a bunch of green white roads. It would probably be further (4K's as it happens) and hiller (much), but I felt good and it was close to the end of the day.
Or so I thought.
The route was longer and MUCH hillier. Earlier I had been meandering up and down to about 440 m, here we rose to 540 m, and at about 8 to 10 %. But I was feeling quite good today and I actually really enjoyed it, it was a lovely stretch of road, one of the nicest I have been on so far this trip. Indeed I would say that this is the best cycling day of the trip so far!
After an excellent descent I came to the point where I just needed to cruise down to the large town of Wiltz. But I didn't. I decided to continue east to a town the same distance away but in the direction I want to go tomorrow. In fact it will cut off about 10 K's tomorrow! So off I went, no problems. I got to the target town after the mandatory major climb and descent, both quite good and... no food. The hotel/restaurant is closed, it is Monday! Bloody hell. The camping ground looks good too. Bugger. I asked the women who runs the camp ground, she ONLY speaks German, and she said that the town of Hosingen will have food. Bugger. Do I go on, and up and down the mandatory hill (two actually) or do I go back (up and down) to Wiltz. I decided to press on, it was no further and again it was in the correct direction. Only 2 K's on I came to a cafe/bar which was open and I got lunch. Phew. I had a very interesting dish, sort of like a ploughmans lunch. Very tasty, and yes there is bread under there somewhere.
While I was there it started to rain so I rushed out and put the rack bag cover on and the bike seat cover on. Then back to lunch and... OH NO, my cycle computer has stopped working!!! ARGH. There was nothing I could do, I tried every obvious thing, no effect, there are just a few icons and some lines. I gave up, finished lunch, waited for the rain to stop, I read a bit of a German paper about the Tour. Then set off down, up, down and up to Hosingen.
Hosingen is on a red road. I had been debating yesterday whether to come here and ride 3 K's down to a connecting point. Definitely a bad idea, way too busy. I rode into town and... all the bloody hotels are shut, even the camping ground. Monday's a rest day. Sigh. I got a hot chocolate at a bar, the only thing open and talked to the owner. She recommended a town about 6 K's away on the river Our which she says has an Auberge which will be open. Since it is on the route to Vianden which I had planned to go through tomorrow anyway I decided to press on. Fortunately, thanks to the lasagna, the breakfast, the lunch and the rest day I still felt good.
So down the hill I went, then even further down, it was a significant descent. And no uphill! Things are looking up. Of course the Auberge was closed. Sigh. It was only 12 K's to Vianden which is marked as a big town and the route is meant to be scenic. And I still feel good! So on I went.
The route was lovely. Hardly any traffic even though it is a yellow road. I had a sinking feeling when I came to a hydro electric power station and yep, there was a hill, but not too long or steep. I was coasting along on the descent after the ascent for the dam (the road climbed higher of course) when there was, of all things, a helicopter stopped on the side of the road! It was a rescue copter and as I rode by two police cars and an ambulance turned up as well.
It was just after this that I had my first view of Vianden! There is a huge chateau, very nice, see the photo. The town is also lovely, very touristy although not that big and plenty of open hotels and restaurants. The camp site is right by the river and is very nice.
As you can imagine I was rather hungry and I decided to get a pizza. I felt like a salad so I chose one at random, an Insalata Mixte. Oh dear, it was huge, only 3.75 Euro's, and it came with baguette slabs (slabs not slices). I didn't need the pizza. I tried valiantly, the pizza was very nice too, but alas I needed Paul. I had to leave 1/3 of the pizza, 1/2 the salad and a 1/4 of the bread :( Nice meal though.
After that back to the campsite to work on the diary. I also checked out the manual for the bike computer and I discovered that there is a master reset and IT WORKED! Phew. I did lose the data from today which is a shame because there was a lot of quality climbing. Oh well.
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