Wandering around Europe, last bit – part 7

For the back end of my trip I had decided to spend two nights in the pretty German town of Saarburg, close to the Luxembourg border leaving me with just one final stop over that I planned to make somewhere reasonably close to the Dunkirk for the DFDS ferry home a few days later.

The ride to Saarburg was decent enough,  see Part 6

Damp and grey start

My accommodation was excellent and weather wise I suppose things worked out quite well for me, as the morning was damp and grey and I was glad I wasn’t riding and had chose to have a relaxing day, catching up on some sleep and wandering around the town,

After breakfast I did borrowed an umbrella from the hotel and went for a wander – and amongst other things climbed to the top of the old castle in the town, browsed a few touristy shops and enjoyed a coffee sheltered from the rain under a large umbrella and one of the many pretty street cafe’s. The weather changed for the better in the afternoon and so I was back out to see how it all looked in the sunshine and it was easy to see how parts of the town were known as ‘Little Venice’

Soon time to head for home

In between wandering round it had been time to start thinking of home and to find somewhere within easy striking distance of the DFDS ferry terminal in Dunkirk, I decided to stay in a place called Richebourg-Saint-Vaast in northern France, which was around the 250/260 mile mark.

The key think for me was that it would leave me only about 50 miles for the ferry on my final day away.

Via Luxembourg and Belgium

The weather was good for my ride up through Luxembourg and Belgium, in fact I had been pretty much resigned to it being dull and possibly chilly, but as good fortune would have it, it was actually another fine and hot day and although I couldn’t really describe the riding as anything close to the best on the trip, it was all nice enough.

 

I don’t think that I could have picked a better and more restful place for the final night of my trip – it was simply splendid. I stayed at a place called La Niche, and probably had the comfiest bed of the trip!

Comfy bed

I was there for around 5pm and went for a decent walk and a bite to eat in the evening before returning for a couple of beers sat out on the veranda in the evening sun, before packing up for the last time on this trip and being ready to get off after breakfast.

On my final day there was just one last thing that I wanted to do and that was to visit the nearby war grave memorials (Indian and Portuguese) at Neuve Chapelle, which is what I did before making the short and uneventful journey to Dunkirk.

Routine ferry home

The ferry back to Dover was routine and I had paid the extra £12 when booking so that I could relax in the comfy seats with refreshments included, it’s a bit of a no brainer to do that on that crossing really and its something my wife and I did when we had travelled by car a couple of years ago en route to the Italian Lakes.

Last few miles

The final leg of my journey was from Dover to Manchester and I cant imagine what I was thinking off when I booked a ferry that would get me into Dover for around 1pm on a Friday. There is simply noting good to say about my journey home other than actually getting home to a fabulous home made cheese and onion pie!

3,700 miles

All in all it was a great trip. I had seen so many new sights and had many new experiences along the way and the bike performed superbly. I had done a little over 3,700 miles and only been on motorways for the journey from home to the ferry port at Hull and then the journey home from Dover, good roads, good times and good experiences

Until next time then …

 

If you have missed previous parts and want to read them you can access them here:

You can read previous Blog Post on this trip here: Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5 and Part 6