TdE - Day 32 Lutzelbourg - Saarbrücken

Route: Lutzelbourg - Rhein-Marne Canal - Saar canal - Saarbrücken 
Distance: 123 km

Elevation: 358 m
Duration: 6:07 h
Weather: cloudy and humid, only a little bit of drizzle later in the day, 21 C

After the relative test day of yesterday, today the first 100+ km day of September! Normally I now ride at least one if not two 100+ km rides on a weekend, back at home in the Netherlands, but it is a difference if riding completely in the flat, without any baggage and with less kilometers in the legs from the previous days. But still, I managed the 100+ km today. 

The day started with an exceptionally poor breakfast. Old bread, old pain au chocolate, an orange juice that didn’t taste too well… all in all probably the worst hotel I have had on the entire trip. Luckily in the small village of Lutzelbourg there was a bakery so after breakfast and before departing I went there and got a TASTY pain au chocolate plus a sandwich. 

And then I set off along the same canal I had come riding up yesterday afternoon, now getting higher and higher into the Vosges, which for a canal means a LOT of sluices! Sometimes so many that one could see the next sluice hut from the previous one. 

And always a well maintained bicycle path alongside. With surprisingly little cycling tourists. Considering the nice, gently upsloping path through the nature, far away from any traffic for miles and miles. 

For the ships there is now an elevator, constructed some 50 or so years ago, which bypasses another many sluices and apparently reduced the travel time by an entire day. 

I haven’t seen it in action though. 

What I did see is where the canal disappears into a tunnel, and where as a cyclist the hardest part of the ride starts, because there is no tunnel for cyclists, we are “forced” to ride OVER the mountain! 

The tunnel wasn’t the only engineering master work, there were also bridges OVER which the canal flowed. 

A huge investment into all the canals, clearly indicating the economic relevance of the black gold found in the region, which is still being extracted to the day. 

Also in order to habe enought for the canals, there were huge artificial lakes often along side the canal, but the region is apparently so remote that these lakes don’t get used for major outdoor activities.

Here a schematic presentation of the Saar canal, its sluices and the water reservoirs:

But enough about engineering and back to cycling… This was me and good “young” Roubaix on the top of the climb and I rewarded myself with the pain au chocolate. 

From there in general terms downwards, but it isn’t so easy, there are always some small ups and downs, when leaving the canal. 

At some time I wanted to have a break and didn’t find a bench along the canal but saw one of the few villages that I encountered and stopped in front of the local church. Luckily in the same village there was also a bakery which doubled up as basic grocery shop, and I could restock with one more sandwich (with foie gras) some Haribos and water. 

The region itself was incredibly unpopulated. Only a few small villages and not a lot along the canal. Luckily I hadn’t planned on having lunch in a restaurant along the canal, as that could have been a difficult search. 

Only shortly before Saarbrücken does the canal become ugly due to industry and parallel highway. But more of that tomorrow.