After 8 days in Strasbourg we left the marine and our now familiar derelict neighbours and turned into the Canal de la Marne au Rhin, the very canal with the broken down incline plane you saw on the u-tube movie 4 episodes ago.
We thought, we might aswell give Jane a little work-out on the ropes before she heads off to her tour.
Once we left the outskirts of Strasbourg the canal became more and more beautiful snaking through lush green forested hillsides. We stopped at a small mooring in the middle of a forest the first night, and then continued the next day ascending lock after lock and reached Saverne at 7pm. We were very hot, sweaty and hungry - that is Jane and I were, since we did all the work!!!
Luckily the marina was beautiful and had all the facilities, including a couple of shipping containers converted into bars with crate like tables and benches. We enjoyed a nice long shower. Then we headed straight to the best restaurant in town, the “Taverne de Katz”, in the oldest house of the city once owned by the chief tax collector.
The food was delicious, from the pork knuckle to the fish pie with featherlight flaky pastry only the French can do.
We slept well and woke up in need of a walk and a good coffee. Opposite of the marina lays the former bishops palace, le Château de Rohan, now accommodation a school, a museum and the local youth hostel. A little walkway nearby leads along a little side canal to a rose garden which is said to have 8500 roses of which we could only see about 221 or so. The rest must bloom at different times. Walking up the “Grand Rue" we found a great bakery/patisserie with good coffee and had a "Croc Monsieur” (ham and cheese toast) for breakfast. I have to say that I admired our constraint: the only things we bought for our afternoon tea were a couple of chocolate croissants.
