July 26th
Today we changed course completely to arrive in the town of Wormeldange in the Moselle valley which is the wine-growing part of Luxembourg, to the east. Literally every scrap of available land has a vineyard of it.
A relaxy day was called for so once we had found a suitable spot, we did a bit of exploring and found an nearby stream (which ran underneath where we had parked) flowing from a lovely little waterfall. Got a really nice picture of Nailz here too. Later on it started to rain so we kicked back in the van, admired the view and settled down for the night. Lovely.
July 27th
From Wormeldange we headed south to Ehnan and stopped briefly by the river Moselle. While there we were passed by the boat MS Princesse Marie-Astrid, which was the venue of the the signing of the first Schengen Agreement. This agreement stipulated terms for removing of internal border controls between Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Belgium, France and Germany and has since been altered to include all members of the EU with the two notable exceptions of the UK and Ireland.
From Ehnan we headed to the town of Schengen itself but stopped of first at the town of Remershen. There we saw an exhibition showing off creative and hands-on skills of children aged 12 - 26 to celebrate the Schengen agreement's 25th anniversary (this year). The idea was to design and build a hut, or similar with the theme "traveling without borders". Seemed entirely appropriate we were there! Among my favourites were amost literal description of the Schengen Agreement, and a bike which keeps you dry in the rain, transforms into a tent and according to the accompanying diagram you can ride it off a cliff (it transforms into a parachute) and land it in the sea as it, of course, is also a boat. When we're back we need to start work on this!!
Next we arrived in Schengen and found the European Museum which held a lot of detail about the formation of the EU, the Schengen agreement and the various bodies which control different aspects of European integration.
It was really nice to be in the town where the agreement was signed, that allowed us to roam from one country to the next. To emphasise the point we then drove straight over the river into Germany and then back into France!
We were heading for Strasbourg, to an 'Aire Municipal' (or free service stop that allows people to camp and using the services) when we stopped for a break in the town of Bitche. Here we found a fort which was part of the defenses of the Maignot line, built after WWI to prevent Germany invading. The German Army did attack it unsuccessfully, but then broke through in Belgium, sweeping round the Maignot line and occupying France. Nailz had a good explore around the fort, and I think he enjoyed the views as much as I did.
Heading towards Strasbourg again, we stopped for the night in a town called Haguenau. The road we had initially stopped on was called the Rue de la Torture, but a swift bit of reversing ensured we stayed on the Rue de la Liberation! Much nicer.
Click here for the route so far!
There are more photos on our Flickr account, click here to have a look at all of them.
Today we changed course completely to arrive in the town of Wormeldange in the Moselle valley which is the wine-growing part of Luxembourg, to the east. Literally every scrap of available land has a vineyard of it.
A relaxy day was called for so once we had found a suitable spot, we did a bit of exploring and found an nearby stream (which ran underneath where we had parked) flowing from a lovely little waterfall. Got a really nice picture of Nailz here too. Later on it started to rain so we kicked back in the van, admired the view and settled down for the night. Lovely.
July 27th
From Wormeldange we headed south to Ehnan and stopped briefly by the river Moselle. While there we were passed by the boat MS Princesse Marie-Astrid, which was the venue of the the signing of the first Schengen Agreement. This agreement stipulated terms for removing of internal border controls between Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Belgium, France and Germany and has since been altered to include all members of the EU with the two notable exceptions of the UK and Ireland.
From Ehnan we headed to the town of Schengen itself but stopped of first at the town of Remershen. There we saw an exhibition showing off creative and hands-on skills of children aged 12 - 26 to celebrate the Schengen agreement's 25th anniversary (this year). The idea was to design and build a hut, or similar with the theme "traveling without borders". Seemed entirely appropriate we were there! Among my favourites were amost literal description of the Schengen Agreement, and a bike which keeps you dry in the rain, transforms into a tent and according to the accompanying diagram you can ride it off a cliff (it transforms into a parachute) and land it in the sea as it, of course, is also a boat. When we're back we need to start work on this!!
Next we arrived in Schengen and found the European Museum which held a lot of detail about the formation of the EU, the Schengen agreement and the various bodies which control different aspects of European integration.
It was really nice to be in the town where the agreement was signed, that allowed us to roam from one country to the next. To emphasise the point we then drove straight over the river into Germany and then back into France!
We were heading for Strasbourg, to an 'Aire Municipal' (or free service stop that allows people to camp and using the services) when we stopped for a break in the town of Bitche. Here we found a fort which was part of the defenses of the Maignot line, built after WWI to prevent Germany invading. The German Army did attack it unsuccessfully, but then broke through in Belgium, sweeping round the Maignot line and occupying France. Nailz had a good explore around the fort, and I think he enjoyed the views as much as I did.
Heading towards Strasbourg again, we stopped for the night in a town called Haguenau. The road we had initially stopped on was called the Rue de la Torture, but a swift bit of reversing ensured we stayed on the Rue de la Liberation! Much nicer.
Click here for the route so far!
There are more photos on our Flickr account, click here to have a look at all of them.
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