Thursday 14 August 2014
| Distance (km) | 15 kms | |||
| Distance (time) | 4.5 hrs | |||
| Climb / Descent | 511m / 491m | |||
| Hard / Soft surface | 80% / 20% | |||
| Landscape |
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| Weather |
 23° 1 Bft
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After another rainy day (Wednesday) with a visit to among others a wine museum the weather is fine again on Thursday and we decide to go walking again. Since we are now truly walking along the Moselle and there are lots of buses there we decided to just walk to the first village we pass after 5 o'clock and then take the bus back so that it won't be such a long day today. And so we park the car at the bus station in Grevenmacher and we start walking.
A short detour through the centre with a visit to the local bakery for 2 croissants brings us back on the GR5. We leave Grevenmacher quickly over nice wide stairs with crucifixes leading up to a chapel. After the chapel it is just a tarmac road again with both left and right vineyards and a beautiful view. This is how we imagined it! The path climbs briefly to get all the way out of the valley to pass through some woods and cereal fields before turning left down some slippery stairs to a view point with a panorama over a large curve in the riber. Too bad that from the view point there are 2 tracks and of course there is no indication which one to take. So we walk 100m to the left....nothing to be seen. Then back and into the other track....and indeed 50m away there is a yellow rectangle. Is it really that hard to put a sign where the road splits (and correct sign, please)? We get more stairs to digest and walk on through the woods before we descend over a tarmac road back into the vineyards to Machtum. It is here that a stinging fly gets hold on my right elbow at almost exactly the same spot as a week ago in close to Wahlhausen. So I just got rid of that swollen itchy elbow and now it starts again. We walk through Machtum and pass a winery and the church before climbing back into the vineyards. The route stays high up the vineyards and even crosses a patch of forest above the highest vineyards before descending steeply again to Ahn. Just above Ahn there is a nice picknick spot with a view over the village. When we enter the village dark clouds approach fast and we decide to preventively seek shelter at a former cultural centre close to where the GR5 leaves Ahn again. And that is a good choice because for the next half an hour the rain smacks down and we are nice and dry under a roof. With the rain gone and the sun coming through again we climb out of Ahn and back into the vineyards. The wind has completely dropped now and with all the humidity of the rain it is muggy hot. That the wind dropped also results in numerous stinging flies around us and we are mostly preoccupied preventing them from landing. So preoccupied that we miss a turn, because suddenly we realise that we haven't seen signs for a while. According to the GPS the route is parallel but higher up from where we walk so we hope for another little road going up. Unfortunately our road starts descending and that is not good. On the other hand, the grapevines are rather far apart and we can see the road above us. So....nobody around? We pass in between the grapevines to the higher road. That is a lot steeper than we thought and out of breath we arrive on the higher road. However, according to the GPS the GR5 is still higher than where we are now. Well, ok, but first let us follow this road for a while. And look, a bit further there is a tarmac road going up to the higher road. Still not high enough according to the GPS and so we arrive at the foot of the Koeppchen chapel instead of up there with the chapel itself. Well, we just walk up the stairs to see the chapel, and back down the stairs because that is what the GR5 does anyway. After the chapel the route turns away from the Moselle and we have to turn left down concrete stairs to get, just above Wormeldange, to the road to Flaxweiler. We descend along this road for a short while and then turn right a steep climb to Wormeldange-Haut. With the rain of an hour ago the path is so slippery that it feels like trying to climb up a slide and it requires some effort to get to the top. We pass Wormeldange-Haut and we're back on a flat tarmac road through the vineyards. All that tarmac is tiring for the feet, but it is 5 o'clock by now and according to what we said we will stop in the next village: Ehnen. There we have to again descend concrete stairs into the village. The GR5 happens to really follow the main road here and that is also where the bus stop is. And so we have the 17:25 bus to Grevenmacher where the car is. Just past 6 we're back on the camping site after a very relaxed walking day. |
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Download track GreEhn.gpx