Cycling Group Holiday September 2023

The Cycling Group holiday to the Moselle in September was one of our most successful and beautiful trips.  We started in Saarbourg near the Luxemburg border, a delightful, busy town with a castle perched above the river, half-timbered buildings decorated with colourful geraniums, and a waterfall flowing through its centre. We spent a morning exploring before joining our river boat on the Saar ready to pedal off the next day.  The cycle paths in Germany are wide, well marked, well maintained and largely traffic free, and this one had the advantage of being mostly flat and following the winding Saar and Moselle rivers through steep sided vine clad valleys to Koblenz.

As well as pretty towns and villages we were also surprised to find much evidence of Roman life in the area especially in and around Trier which was at one time the largest Roman town north of Rome and which had a most impressive gate, the Porta Negra. The Romans were also responsible for establishing the wine industry in the region and had even left a wine press for us to see. Of course, we felt obliged to sample a good deal of the local produce during the week and were favourably impressed! The pretty towns and villages with their painted houses, fountains, cafes, churches with striking modern glass windows and castles with panoramic river views are too many to name, but after Trier one of the highlights was Burg Eltz. We reached this fairy tale castle on foot climbing up through the woods, with a rushing stream below. Throughout its colourful history it has been home to the same family since the 12^th century and has never been destroyed.

We all had such a good time, plans are already afoot for our next adventure in 2024.

Report of u3a Trip to Normandy D-Day Beaches September 2023

By any measure, the scope of the 4-day trip to Normandy for 40 people was ambitious for a u3a group. However, our comfortable ferry trip from Portsmouth couldn’t compare in any way with the the vast complexity and sacrifice of landing 156,000 troops nearly 80 years ago. Nonetheless, our guide, u3a member Mike Phillips, managed to pull it off in fine style.

To see the full report please click here.     Additional photos can be seen here