Sunday, 31-05-2009

St. Vith to Echternach

89kms total 226kms

Got on the N646 road around nine(ish) heading SE, and had our first small hill to climb. A few kms down the road  came the real climb and it was tough, seeing how out of shape we were in, we had to struggle a bit.
Upon reaching this plateau we just followed the signs for Dasburg, now we've been along part of this route a couple of years ago and it was great. The only difference is that this time the weather was perfect, sunny, not too hot and a tail wind, we could not ask for a better day.
At Dasburg we stopped at a gas station for some supplies and had a couple of our favorite beer, ice cold Bitburger half liters ;-) , but as good as they were it was a bad idea as we lost our legs for a while.
We continued (downriver this time) along the Our river (which is the river between Germany and Luxemburg) south to Vianden.
A few kms after Vianden we stopped for tea and started to worry as some large dark clouds were coming up and we saw in the distance heavy showers. At Wallendorf we turned on to the Sauer river and headed downriver to Echternach. Before we could reach Echternach it did rain a bit but stopped after a few minutes.

We really wished all our days could be like this, we managed the hills quite good even with our shape.

At camp we met Riva ? a student who is hiking from the Hook of Holland to Nice. He showed us a book were apparently there is a hiking path that goes all the way. Our hat off to this guy, that is one long hike.

He also told us that we were lucky as a couple of hours earlier the sky's had opened up and they had a real heavy downpour.

The camping here is still as good as it was in 2005 were I first stopped here on my way to Greece.

Left to Right:

1- View from atop the first climb on the N646. 2- Taking a rest after the long difficult second climb still

on the N646. 3- And the view we had. 4- Rest stop by this monument to the German tank traps.

5- Monique showing the height of the tank traps. 6- View from on the L1 after Lutzkampen.

1- View from atop the plateau just before Dasburg. 2&3 Just caught the shell sign of the Camino to Santiago de Compostela 4- On the way to Vianden along the river Our river. 5- The village of Bivels taken from the N10 before Vianden. 6- Castle above Vianden. 

1- Having tea with a view 2009. 2- Having tea with a view 2006 ;-) notice the bikes with different panniers and pointed in different directions. 3-4&5- Memorials to the brave men who fought here in WWII. 6- The brave hiker we met in camping Echternach. 7- Our setup in Echternach, almost the same place as in 2005.

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