Dreisbach (lost mooring)

Disused blast furnaces at Völklingen Hätte

TUESDAY 21 JUNE

As I was packing away the power cables and hosepipe ready for leaving Saarbrücken on Tuesday morning a German guy stopped by for a chat.  When he found out we were heading north he explained that the first part of the journey would be through industrial Saarland.  He was keen to talk about the rich industrial heritage as well as the countryside, in fact he was quite proud of the industry of the area.  Thinking about it later, we are just the same in the UK and are keen to protect our own rich industrial past too.

Thilo’s peniché where we spent Monday evening

We only had one lock to go down before reaching our destination for the day, Völklingen.  It would be the first of the larger 190-metre-long locks on the Saar and of course we were approaching it with some apprehension as we always do at the first large lock when we’re on a new river.  The apprehension was compounded because of the language barrier and when I radioed ahead there was a fairly long response, but I gathered we were being asked to wait a while.

Waiting at the lock

A work boat was unloading equipment onto the lock side and we had to wait for nearly half an hour before they’d finished and left the lock.  

Work boat finally leaving the lock

Once we were called in we tied up towards the back of the lock as I recalled the word hinter during the conversation with the lockie.  The lock had floating bollards which we are always pleased to see as they are the simplest device to use when descending large locks.  Nothing else happened and the gates didn’t start to close so we just sat there.  Then the lockie radioed us and it transpired that the lock had two sets of rear gates and he wanted us to tie up after the middle set as only half the lock was going to be used. 

I felt so embarrassed, but the guy was OK and used the international, ‘no problem’.  Using the middle gates must save a lot of water and time as they decrease the lock length from 190 to 120 metres; mind you that’s still an impressive size for a narrowboat. 

Waiting for the gates to open

The autobahn ran alongside us for much of the journey and, as expected from the conversation with the guy earlier in the morning, we passed quite a few factories, both old and modern.

Autobahn following the valley on the left

Arriving at Völklingen we found the long pontoon where we were planning to moor.  We pulled up and made ourselves secure and went off to check out the services available.

Practically empty pontoon

It transpired that the pontoon was gated and there seemed to be a strange process for obtaining a code to unlock the gate.  I called the phone number provided and before I could talk, something was said to me, and the phone was put down. Being a bit bemused, we checked the gate again and it was now unlocked.  We really weren’t keen on going through in case it locked again so we packed up and moved over to a wall on the other side of the river.  It was a much better mooring as we were able to put most of the boat under a higher part of the wall and thus keep it in the shade.

In the shade of a high wall

The main reason for stopping at the town was to visit the world heritage site of the town’s iron and steel works, the Völklingen Hütte.  Because of our record of turning up to visit places on days they are closed, Karen had already checked the site was open on Tuesdays.  She’d also found out that the entry fee is waived for entry after 16:00 on Tuesdays so we made our way down to arrive dead on the dot of four!

The works were founded in 1873 by a guy called Julius Buch and it soon became one of Europe’s prominent iron and steel works.  In its heyday, 17,000 people worked on the 15-acre site operating the six blast furnaces as well as coke ovens, an iron-ore processing plant and sintering furnaces.  The works closed in 1986 and are being preserved as a living museum that also hosts concerts and art exhibitions.

As the saying goes, we were blown away by our visit and were amazed at how free we were to wander around the place and climb up the beside the blast furnaces.  Words and pictures just cannot do the scale, grandeur and history of the works any justice, so here are a few of each:

The inside areas were lit atmospherically

One of the six blast furnaces

Trucks of iron ore ran on suspended tracks

Northern part of the site with slag heaps in the distance

Monorail

The eastern side with Völklingen town in the background

We were asked to wear hard hats when we wanted climb up beside the blast furnaces so here’s the obligatory picture:

Some areas were given over to modern art installations. We know such things are put on for marketing purposes and getting visitor numbers up but we hardly ever get the messages that are being portrayed by modern art exhibitions.  The only piece I’ll include is where a modern artist had taken over a couple of rooms for a display of workers’ lockers.

We spent over two hours exploring the site and would highly recommend a visit.

Coincidentally, after talking about dragon boat racing at Saarbrücken, two dragon boats were practising up and down the river during the evening.

On Tuesday we travelled 12 km down one lock.

WEDNESDAY 22 JUNE 

A Rhine river cruiser went past before 9am on its way to Saarbrücken to disembark its passengers at the end of its eight day 'four rivers' cruise.  It would pick up the next lot of guests for the return trip to Würzburg along the rivers Saar, Mosel, Rhine and Main.  At 110 metres long it would have just fitted in the cut down lock of yesterday, but the crew would know that and not suffer our discomfort of course.

One of the first morning tasks was to move the walnuts to the next stage of the pickling process.  Having been soaked in brine for a couple of weeks, they will now dry out and finish turning black in the sun for a few days.

A couple of walnut blackening trays

As we left Völklingen a goods shunter was crossing a bridge over the river but stopped hallway across.  Unbelievably, the driver got out and stood at the side waving and giving us the thumbs up as we went underneath.  I wish I’d had the presence of mind to have guessed what was going on and taken a picture of him looking so happy

There was only one lock to go down on the journey and, learning from our middle doors trauma of the previous day, we went in and headed for halfway along.  To our surprise, this time there were no middle doors, so we had the whole 190 metre lock to ourselves.

Arriving in Saarlouis we pulled up on the town pontoon where there was just enough room for us and a German cruiser that was already there.  After a quick lunch we went into the tourist office to pick up some suggestions for town trails.  The town certainly looked interesting with extensive fortifications but as we felt quite tired, we had a quiet afternoon back at the boat leaving the trails until Thursday.

Saarlouis town mooring

Apart from the Rhine river cruiser that went past us in the morning the only other boat we saw all day was in the late afternoon when a small cruiser passed on its way downstream.  So far, we have been surprised how quiet the Saar has been but no doubt it will get busier, especially with commercials as we near the Mosel.  We were a little surprised when we heard a boat coming at about nine in the evening and then remembered that the locks from here down to the Mosel operate 24 hours a day.  It turned out to be the Rhine river cruiser we’d seen in the morning but now going in the opposite direction.

Thurgau Casanova

On Wednesday we travelled 13 km down one lock.

THURSDAY 23 JUNE

Before leaving Saarlouis we followed a town trail starting with a walk around the large park between the river and an old arm that used to be part of the town’s defence system.  We then went along the fortifications before we visited the old town and then the more modern area.  The fortifications followed the line of the old arm and were designed by the French military architect Vauban whose work we’ve come across quite regularly this year.  An island in the old arm is called Vauban Island on which stands a couple of sculptures.  The first is of Marshal Ney, one of Napoleon’s most successful generals, and the other is of a French soldier called Lacroix from the Franco-Prussian war of 1815.  In the background is one of the ornamental fountains along the waterway:

Soldier Lacroix

Lacroix is commemorated in several places in Germany and France as an example of a committed soldier who remained at his post even as the French troops fled.  Apparently the Prussians were impressed by his courage so fed him and let him leave unharmed.

Remains of walls on either side of the arm

Vauban island

The main square in town was formed in the 1600s as a parade and drill ground and is now spoilt by being used as a car park. We couldn’t help thinking how different the atmosphere would be if it was traffic free as in towns such as Nancy and Siena.

Grosser Markt

The large building right of centre was built in 1680 for the town commander and was another of Vauban’s designs; it is now a bank and post office.  There were identical drinking water fountains at each corner of the square, nowadays used by thirsty dogs.

The old town consisted of narrow streets of bars and restaurants, some of which were already open with people breakfasting while others were being set up for the day’s trading.  Back at the fortifications a long line of vaults behind the walls that used to house solders, horses and their equipment has been converted to another large eating area with restaurants stretching as far as the eye could see.

No town gates exist these days; the German gate was demolished in 1866 and used to stand over the road we took to walk back to the boat.

Where the German gate once stood

When we set out after lunch, we knew it was going to be the first day we would be sharing the river with the larger commercials.  We had four more locks to go through before the Saar joins the Mosel and all of them are in pairs.  One of each pair being 190 metres long and the other, a Freycinet standard, 40 metre one.  Assuming there are no problems with the smaller locks, we’ll be using those so back to the size we’re most familiar with.

Soon after leaving we passed the commercial port at Dillingen and could see boats being both loaded and unloaded.  From that point on we had to be extra alert and keep the radio on the ship-to-ship channel, although if we heard someone, the chance of understanding the message would be very small but at least we'd understand if we were being told to keep to the right or the left.

Entrance to the port at Dillingen

The rolling hills alongside the river made for a stunning journey:

Before we got to the first and only lock of the day, we were overtaken by a 180-metre boat, practically the largest that will fit in the Saar locks.  It had three cars on board, all plated differently: Belgian, German and Dutch.  It probably operated 24 hours a day with four pilots judging by the names stencilled on the side of the cabin.

The 180-metre Vera Cruz

In case you wonder how we know how long the boats are, in a similar fashion to HGVs, they have their length, breadth and gross weight stencilled on their hulls.  As we approached the locks we could see the large one was already set for Vera Cruz with its lights on green – no hanging around for the big boys compared to our own experiences.  Even though we’d radioed ahead for our lock, the big boat was already leaving his by the time we were entering ours.

Vera Cruz filling his big lock

Plenty of room in our little lock

We saw a few more commercials underway but no other private boats and moored at one end of a 500-metre-long quay at a place called Merzig.  Unfortunately, it was facing west, so the high wall didn’t protect us from the sun, but it did present a bit of an issue getting Buddy on and off.  With temperatures back in the 30s the steel boat was too hot to touch so we covered the roof of the boat where Buddy had to tread to avoid burning his feet.

Moored on the wall at Merzig

On Thursday we cruised 17 km down one lock.

FRIDAY 24 JUNE

At 2.30 on the morning, we were awoken by the deep sound of an engine and then realised it was a commercial going by.  We don’t think there were any more during the early hours, but a couple went past while we were having breakfast followed by an empty one that pulled in and moored up behind us.  Two guys stayed on board washing it down while the third one got his car off and went to do the shopping.

Preparing for the shopping run

We were due to move on to a place called Mettlach where there was meant to be a mooring above the weir by the pair of locks.  As usual, Karen rechecked the details before we left and found that the mooring didn’t actually exist or rather it was no longer available for private boats, so we had a quick replan.  We were faced with a choice of carrying on another 12 km to the following mooring or stopping earlier at the one previous mooring which was only five km away from where we were.  Not fancying a long cruising day, we opted to go to the closer mooring and have an easy day listening to the cricket.

Friday cruising on the Saar

When we arrived at Dreisbach we were expecting a two-metre-high quay like the one we’d just left but it was more like a metre meaning it would be easier to get Buddy on and off.  We made sure we moored right at one end as it was obviously another stopping place for commercials although not nearly as long as the one we’d been on the previous night.  It was just as well we had moored at the end as, while we were having lunch, a boat that we’d passed earlier, having its cargo of coal unloaded, tied up behind us.

Moored at Dreisbach

On Friday we cruised five kilometres through no locks.