Miles

We had some wonderful weather this past weekend, the kind of weather that makes you happy to be alive.  The plan was to get up early and take the dog for a quick walk around town, then run some errands, and spend the rest of Saturday (prepare to be envious)... cleaning.  The great thing about continental European houses is the total lack of carpeting.  Nothing but hard wood and tile around here, which is awesome.  The terrible thing about not having any carpets is that you now see how much crap is in your house.  It's quite revolting actually.  People of America, stop laying around on your carpets!  I'm telling you, studies will come out about what diseases are being caused by the stuff in carpets.  Not that I'm getting all domestic in my retirement or anything (at least I hope not), but with the pets keeping this house clean is a challenge.  What better time to tackle it than Spring, right?

Anyway, I digress.

That really straight line that looks like a MapMyDogWalk blip, was the 1.5mile (detour)

So, we got up early, took the dog and headed out.  When we got to the General Patton Monument, a mere 0.5 miles from the house, we thought, heck, let's keep going.  Erpeldange is nice this time of year.  Well, we got to Erpeldange and it seemed ridiculous to walk back the way we came, so we thought we'd cross the river to see if there was another way back.  There, we stumbled upon a map for the Victor Hugo Trail, a long distance hiking path that runs through the Ardennes region (I'd give you a link or show you a map, but there doesn't seem to be any online).  If we followed that route, we'd get back to town.  Despite a mile and a half detour caused by my poor sign reading skills, we had no trouble making it home.  It was much longer and strenuous than the planned stroll, but the dog absolutely loved it.  We also loved it.  These hiking trails are pretty awesome, and there's a ton of them.  This may be a small country, but it has enough outdoor exploration options to overload some of our big National Parks.  So, grab your trekking poles (because you need them if you want to be a cool here), and get outside.

If that type of thing is interesting you, you can purchase map books at book stores for the "Rambling Routes", the rails to trails, cycle routes, and mountain bike trails.  The routes are organized by region, difficulty, and they describe the highlights.  They use topographic maps and provide elevation profiles and they're printed in French, German, and English.  Each book includes a plastic sleeve so you can take your chosen map with you instead of hauling the book on your trip.

Grey: CFL Rails to Trails; Orange: Cycle Routes; Blue: Rambling routes
We don't have the Mountain Bike book yet.

So, there went the morning, not that I'm complaining.  Ok, time to run those errands.  We get to the home interior store for some curtains (because our neighbors can see right into our house and they are so close together it's like they're in the house).  Oh look! A charcoal grill and it's on sale!  And patio furniture!  It is really nice this weekend, grilling on some charcoal would be perfect.  There went the afternoon.  We did get some cleaning done, but those disturbing piles of fur and who knows what else under all the furniture haven't been eradicated yet.  After that, it was off to a concert for a brass band a friend of our's is in.  That was pretty cool, though I wasn't expecting to hear so much John Phillips Sousa in March.  In Luxembourg.

The plan for Sunday was to grab some food for an evening grill session and then hook up the bike trailer for a ride north towards Echternach (for the record, not to Echternach).  I whipped out the Orange book with my coffee and we figured out the pista cyclable paths we wanted to take (16 and 3).  We loaded up the bikes, convinced the dog to join us, grabbed our helmets, water and house keys (woohoo!), forgot our snacks (boo!) and headed out.  We decided to walk through town this time to flow with the pedestrian congestion.  Worked like a charm.  So, did our bells, by the way.

We rode and we rode and we kept on riding.  It was absolutely gorgeous out.  I believe it was almost 70F.  Other people were out, but not too many, and for miles it was just the two..err, three of us.  The trail follows the Our river and the German border.  If you cross one of the few bridges, you will ride your bike into Germany.  We didn't do this.  As the ride progressed, I became determined to ride all the way to Echternach.  The legs felt great and I did mention the weather was perfect.  But, alas, the trail was closed 2 miles from Echternach.  We opted to turn around there as opposed to taking the trailer with the dog on the narrow twisty roads with everyone out there testing they're performance vehicles.  So, we paused to let the dog run around below this nifty bridge (that serves one of the many hiking trails) in Weilerbach.

Right about then, we realized we needed those snacks hanging out at home in the fridge.  Thankfully, these trails pass through civilization so were able to pick up some trail mix and drinks at a gas station.  Bonks averted.  We headed back home just in time to catch some good light on this view.

The path is running along the Sauer here, just east of Diekirch.

It wasn't until we returned home that we checked the odometer and saw that we had gone about 38 miles  (if only that trail had been open those last two miles!). I could be wrong, but I think this is the furthest we've ridden is a really, really long time.

I'm not sure why it was such a great ride, maybe the weather, maybe the perfect conditions of the trail.   It's only now that I'm starting to realize that it might have been too much at once.  I'm also starting realize we don't own enough ice packs.

Not that I'm complaining.