Tour de Grand Est - leaving Luxembourg

It was hard to get out of the sleeping bag this morning. Rainy, windy and real feel of 7. Let's just say we were very happy to have an indoor dining solution for breakfast. 

Once we got rolling, the sun helped. First stop was to chat with some cows. 

The one cow was quite engaged in conversation with Marc, but the other one clearly wanted to chat with me 💗

This guy was not so sure about either of us, so best to stay uncommitted. 

We said our goodbyes and enjoyed the bike path.

!!!

The first small town we came to, we slowed as we approached a preschool, as they were all lined up and crossing the road. 

As we got closer we realized that not only were the teachers and kids crossing, but 3 little sheep too.

Seriously. Mary, is that you? 

"It followed her to school one day, school one day, school one day..."🎶

If you look closely, it looks like the sheep wanted to follow us 🥰. A fun way to start the ride. 

It was a very rural ride today. Not many villages, more forest and field. 

In the sun it was warm(ish) and in the shade it was cool, indeed downright cold at times. We had to stop and warm up in sunny spots. 

Not sure what these little bags contain, they were on the stakes at the end of each crop row at one of the farms we cycled by...any ideas?

I do love the town signs. All with the same image of buildings. When you cross the town line you see the town name announcement sign, and when you leave, you get the red line through it, like "been there, done that". 

It was a hilly ride today. 

Often the towns are on the river and so at the bottom of the hill. Messancy was definitely one of those. See the red dot on the elevation chart, that's where the town center was... 

Lunch was on the Church steps in another small village, across from the school. The laugher of the kids playing kept us entertained while we ate. 

After lunch we enjoyed scenic quiet roads, forests and smooth bike paths. But it was quite cold. 

The traffic signs are common across these countries. This one is my favourite, for sure. Don't you just love it! !!!

As we crossed into Belgium (we only knew because of the car licenses) there were memorials, memories of both wars are still very present here, and there was a Cdn forces base here for many years post war. 

We are camping near Virton, Belgium. 

We basically have the place to ourselves. 

It is a large campground but we have only seen two other families. 

We are planning the route for tomorrow. There are many hills in our future 🚴‍♀️

Good night and stay warm everyone. 

And some good night daisies. 

Photo credit note - the first photo of the blog today was taken by a random stranger. We were on a quiet road, not really close to anywhere. We had just climbed a big hill, Marc was waiting for me at the top, and we had a lovely view ahead.

There just happened to be a man walking along the road. And I just smiled and handed him my phone and asked him to take a photo 😂🥰 

Photo angel.