Convent in the village of Saint Jean de Bassel
Moored up in Mittersham looking forward to our pork curry, 2nd time around. Mike is watching England comprehensively beat Croatia. Nice the WiFi here is strong, so he can catch the game.
We have the engine running as although we moored up on a serviced quay the electricity is not on and the Capitain did not come round to collect the mooring fees. A benefit of prepaying our engine hours is that we can to run the engine to top up the battery. It definitely needed it as I had a cool shower, not unwelcome, and I think the power levels were quite low as we only had a short cruise this morning and wild camped yesterday.
Today has been a delightful day. The mist was rising off the canal when we poked our heads out of the hatch after tea in bed to let it warm up a tad. As we were right by the lock we decided that I should take her in whilst Mike got some footage from the shore. Bit nerve wracking being on my own on the boat bringing it into the lock but I managed well for the most part.
We only had just over an hour to go to reach Mittersheim where we planned to moor up and then go for a cycle ride. Nice that as we came into the lock ahead of the town a little girl with her family was very excited to see the lock filling up. Glad we didn’t have any mishaps! Our reversal into to pontoon space wasn’t quite so smooth. I needed two attempts, however a little later I saw another boat having a similar experience where they misjudged the angles and needed a second go.
As the local bakery shut at midday I quickly headed off for a loaf of bread. Saw a sign in the shop saying there was a festival between 2 and 6 in Fénétrange, a destination on our cycle route. We had initially thought to do our loop in a clockwise direction, however that would have got us there too early so we reversed our plan. Here is a link to our ride on Ride with GPS LINK TO RIDE
We warmed up cycling upstream along the canal path, passing the locks we would be sailing through tomorrow. Enjoyed that section. We then made a short detour down to Rhodes which in a normal year would have beautiful views over the Etang du Stock. Unfortunately the lack of rain this year really shows as the lake shore was heavily receded, pontoons over mud and no boats were out. Hard for businesses to survive with these conditions and the lack of visitors.
See some photos opposite from our cycle ride
We had our picnic lunch in a shady spot close to the local church before heading back to Ecluse 2, past a row of fisherman trying their luck in a higher lake, which was full. We see quite a lot of fish jumping in the canal and fishing is a big thing round here.
Our ride NE to Fénétrange was hilly, but no where near as difficult as yesterday and it was good that we tended to have some fun long downs leading into inclines which I tried to get a good speed into. Managed just over 40kph, not too bad on a small wheel folding bike!
A highlight of our afternoon was the convent in the village of Saint Jean de Bassel. Lovely buildings. Enjoyed the sight of straw figures in the garden below a statue of the Saint Michael Archangel. A few more rolling hills before we reached Fénétrange. A once wealthy town, however now in a state of decline. We were both very hot and needed a rest in the shade of the Schuman park next to the town hall where the ‘festival’ was being held. In effect a few stalls selling local crafts. However, we were able to fortify ourselves with a slice of pear sponge cake which gave us some energy for the rest of our ride and I bought some local honey as a pressie for Andrew.
Our ride back to base took us through a beech wood, beautiful and much cooler in the shade. We also saw giant /great white egrets for the first time fishing in the shallows of a lake we dropped down to. Magnificent birds and a real treat. Had to include some photos from the web as with just my phone camera it was difficult to get clear photos. They were very skittish and as we got closer they would infuriatingly fly off a little!
We celebrated a very enjoyable day by having a bottle of Cremant that Mike had purchased from the wine merchant in Bissert. Very nice bottle of wine. Set Mike up nicely to watch Englands victory.
See opposite a video from our day
