I left the Mosel River at Sierck les Bains, into the rolling hills of forest, distel, and wheat fields. It was beautiful cycling in the morning though the cool, misty fields (Photo 2 ). The weather pattern was typical of the rest of the trip: cool and misty in the morning, hot and clear during the day, and a thunderstorm in the evening.

I was approached by a group of cyclists while reading my map in a village. They asked me where I was going. One told me that the route I had planned wasn't possible as one of the roads didn't exist, and that I should follow him. I did, and he took me back to his house in Vigy, where he gave me lunch (Photo 3 ). My trip reminded him of trips he had done when he was younger. I think he would still like to do trips like that, but, cannot now due to family commitments.

From Vigy, I cycled through the rolling countryside parallel to the Sarre River (and about 30km from it), with the aim to hit the Rhine River just below Strassbourg. It was quite tiring cycling up and down, but pleasant, through farming countryside. As it got later in the afternoon, the clouds started to look more and more threatening, and finally, I decided to make a dash to the nearest larger town, and find a hotel. The town was Phalsbourg. There was one hotel there, and it was shut. You can see why there are no hotels there - its not a particularly pretty place. While I was there, it started to teem. When it had stopped, I asked someone where the nearest hotel was, and they directed me to Letzelbourg - a cute village in the wooded Zorn River. There were several hotels there, and I stayed in one of them.