Fahrt Nach Merzig

*** Tip: the hyperlinks (Blue underlined words) are to something related to the post. If you don't feel like reading in German, you can "right-click" and translate page to English, on most browsers***

Some friends and I decided to ride down the Saar in order to check out a few "Famous" places in Saarland.  We stopped first at Werner Freund Wolfspark- a private reserve for wolves.  The camera worked for this portion of the trip and I made the following video:

----WARNING: If you have epilepsy, I'm not sure this will help.  You can slow down the speed if you open the video on youtube ---- 

I've never made a video before, so this was more of the learning step. In the future I'll try to take photos more often so it is smoother.

Here is our Nutella cookie break:

And finally at the Wolfpark:

The wolves were all pretty tired but luckily napping close to the fence:

As we were leaving the park we realized someone had a nasty flat caused by a ripped tire.  Unfortunately he was forced to walk the bike to the nearest trains station and go home.  The remaining two of us pushed on.

As we were riding I saw this colossal cement structure and decided to check it out:

     It turns out (luckily there was a sign) that building was actually one of the 14,000 bunkers (B-Werk) that comprised of the "West Wall."  The West Wall stretched from the eastern French border all the way to the North Sea and was meant to protect German land in the event of a war.

CC BY-SA 2.0 de (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/de/deed.en)], via Wikimedia Commons

     The French counterpart, the Maginot Line, was built just a long the French-German border.  The French army, at the time, needed several weeks to mobilize.  They believed that the Mignot Line would allow a small group of permanent servicemen to repel the Germans until their army was ready (in the event of war).  They also counted on the Germans to respect Belgium's neutrality, so the line of forts didn't extend along this border.  The German's violated the neutrality and invaded France through Belgium, meaning the government spent millions of dollars for nothing.  It's hard to imagine what the state of affairs was in the region during the 1930s.

The bunker extends 4 stories into the ground, has 44 rooms, and was staffed by around 80 people.  The idea was that this bunker would protect a vital crossing and allow a small group of men to fight for over 4 weeks alone, in the event of an invasion.  You can see the view of the Saar valley from the roof, as well as the observation and gun cupolas:

It was unclear from the sign and from a short search on the internet, but it seems more than likely that this location participated in the fighting against the American troops during the Rhineland-Palatinate fighting.  I think I'll look for a book on area history- it's still hard for me to believe so many terrible things took place here in the last century.  It was pretty sobering to walk around the sight and think about it's individual purpose and role in history.

After we got back on our bikes and pedaled our way back to happy thoughts, we stopped for this beautiful view:

We also happened to be lost- we weren't too upset.

Eventually we made it to the Saarschleife (more on it later) and rode straight up the mountain to an old castle. Burg Mountclair was built sometime in the 12th century due to it's strategic position on the Saar (mountain top, surrounded on 3 sides by water), but it has been used as a strategic position since the 3rd century (think Romans, Germanic tribes, and Celtics).

Inside the fort was a pretty cool musuem, but an even cooler Biergarten:

Riding bikes can make you thirsty. While we were waiting for our beer, I couldn't help but notice a young knight honing his sword in the corner.  I decided to test my German and investigate if he was the victim of timewarp.

Despite his garb and collection of weaponry, he was surprisingly from a nearby village and had a job.  His real love in life, however, was middle-aged history and weaponry.  Him and his club role-play almost every weekend when the weather is good in order to have fun, provide entertainment for visitors, and talk about their hobby.  He was a super nice guy and told me all about his replica weapons and how each one was special in its own way.

He even showed me how balanced his long sword was.  "But How!?" you ask? By gently commanding me to "Bleib ruhig" and then throwing his whole torso into a arcing swing of his sword... with the blade stopping 5-10cm from my neck.  In my surprise, I reflexively said some colorful, polite phrase in English- which led to a few questions about where I'm from.  We enjoyed our short talk but were interrupted by the delivery of some needy beer.

Fast forward 20 minutes... our snack is interrupted by the sweet, singing sound of the war-maker's symphony.  We run up the tower investigate:

No! our knight!  He's too young to die! He's losing footing to the overhead blows of the weisser Ritter.

But Oh! how he channeled the primal energy of his mane and fought the lesser man (seen in white with the unsightly unsightly 21st century haircut).  The fighting was relentless! **Except for the 2 minute break when they were out of breath and accidentally hit each other**

During the water break We got to look at half of the Saarschleife:

Once we were fully relaxed, entertained, and replenished, we hit the trail.  Mettlach:

Home of Villeroy and Boch, world-famous Porcelain makers.  Here is the estate:

And one of the many office buildings.

We were pretty tired at this point and decided to take the train home: