Day 10 already! I’ve had a few questions come in, mostly via WhatsApp… seeing as the website comments thing doesn’t seem to work for everyone! So if you want to have a look at answers to the first Q&A post, then look here.
After a night of rain and thunderstorms we woke up to a damp campsite and water covering the front screen and awning. It wasn’t raining as we packed away, so all was well after we wiped down the stuff as it got packed away.
The target for the end of today was to get to Campingplatz Moselhöhe just outside of Heidenburg, east of Trier.
On the way there we were going to try and find the Gorges du Loup (that we failed to find yesterday) and to do a whistle stop tour of Trier – recommended by Tom and Helen.
Gorges du Loup
Once Sue had got her internet black belt out, she found what looked to be the right car park to be attacking the route from.
So we headed off to the Trooskneppchen car park on the outskirts of Echternach and bingo, a really small car park with just a 1km walk to what seemed to be the main feature of the woods – Wollefsschlucht. How did we not find this yesterday!?😱
There were a few spaces still free at about 11 when we arrived and after a bit of Rush Hour and waiting for the rain to subside we headed down the trail.
And then the rain started again. No big deal, it was warm and not very heavy under the tree canopy.
After the designated 1km we arrived at Wollefsschlucht.
The images I’m about to show probably need a bit of explaining. Gorge created by a landslide of sandstone thousands of years ago. You arrive at a bluff with the trail winding down into a hollow, up the other side and the onto another hollow. Out of the second hollow there’s a steep set of steps up to a lookout above the first hollow. The lookout gives views of Echternach and the Saure river running down the valley.
With that description I can now show you some images…
From that second hollow we walked up to the lookout…
And of course, first selfie of the day…
Perhaps Sue and I have been very remiss in our people observing, but it strikes us that we see a lot more hikers with umbrellas here than we would see in the UK! 🤷♂️
Next, if feeling just a little damp, it was on to Trier…
Trier
It was a quick 20k or so over to Trier from Echternach and we lucked out finding a car park just over the bridge entering the town. It was quiet and had big bays so we could park with the bikes on the back.
Even better the car park used one of the same apps, parkbyphone, that I use in the UK and I was able to use the same account and bush-bash-bosh we were all paid up!
Porta Negra
It was a flat 20 minute walk into the centre of Trier where we came across the Porta Nigra (Black Gate) which was part of the Roman city.
Karl Marx Statue
Next it was the statue of Karl Marx, born in Trier…
St Peter’s Trier
Then we wandered through the town and to St Peter’s Cathedral and the Liebfrauenkiche.
After a coffee in the building where Napoleon lived, of course.
The inside of St Peter’s seemed a bit odd to me. It felt like someone had raided a bunch of older cathedrals and plonked bits and pieces from each into a huge church.
I don’t know how many cathedrals claim they have the tunic that Christ was crucified in, but this cathedral claims to have it. You can’t get very close to it, hidden behind a set of Perspex doors and then in a box. We don’t even know if it exists!
We then went next door to the cloisters with a garden housing the previous bishops (I think).
St. Peter’s is supposedly the oldest Christian Cathedral in Europe. Dating back to the 4th century. Of course it had been demolished and rebuilt a few times since then, but the back of the site was still Roman in construction and therefore about 1600 years old.
Trier Basilica
After St Peter’s we probably got a bit lost and ended up at the basilica. Wow! This is a monstrous construction.
This picture doesn’t do the building justice. It’s huge, 70m long and 30m high. Once you’re inside it’s just mind blowing to think that Emperor Constantine had this built in the 4th century.
Then there was the second selfie of the day… in the garden of a palace (?) that someone plonked onto the Basilica!…
And that was Trier. We could have spent a few more hours wandering around and we missed the Roman amphitheater that both of us wanted to do, but we needed to get to our campsite and get set up for the night.
Camperplatz Moselhöhe
We’re staying in the Camperplatz Moselhöhe tonight, just outside of Heidenburg, about 30k east of Trier, overlooking the Mosel Valley.
This is much more our sort of campsite: good pitch spacing, clean toilets (with loo seats), good showers and dishwashing. The electricity is run off a meter though ( settle up when leaving) and you have to pay for fast internet (€20 for 2 nights).
And the mist rising off the Mosel in the valley below…
Tomorrow we’re off to the Black Forest for three nights.
745 miles on the odometer and Harry has just got his invitation to Hogwarts.
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