Shortly after leaving the wharf at Thionville we were hailed by a police boat. This was our first maritime check and naturally, we were a little nervous. Scrambling to fetch our boat papers, life jackets and fire extinguishers, we totally forgot to take a photo of being boarded. A shame, really! The French officer was quite good looking and so was his female counterpart in the boat, Austin thought. The former was duly impressed by Austin’s tidy document folder of boat-, radio- licences etc. and we passed with flying colours. After ensuring that Jane was neither an illegal immigrant nor a terrorist, he elegantly stepped back into the speedboat to his waiting partner and off they went.
We felt like a G & T, but at 10.30am and still cruising through some volatile Moselle locks, that just wouldn’t have been right.
As the weather deteriorated, we neared Sierck Les Bains and decided to stop for lunch. The “Kuhnle" mooring was locked and unattended, but we found a railing along the towns quay to tie up to and soon were climbing the steep alleys to the Ducs of Lorraine Castle. Dated from the XI century, the castle was “lusted after” (taken from the brochure) by both France and Burgundy, as it blocked the Rhine road through the valley of the Moselle.
Some fierce knights from the local school were guarding the towers, but gave us safe passage to viewpoints over the river. 
We made it to a restaurant in the village for our last French lunch just in time before a heavy downpour.
After lunch we passed Schengen, where the three countries: France, Luxembourg and Germany meet and stayed in the harbour of Schwebesange for the night. In the morning we filled our thirsty diesel tanks (with 723 litres - saving around $240.-euro at 0.89/litre) and were off to Wasserbillig.
This boarder town, where the Moselle leaves L
uxembourg and becomes the German “Mosel”, is a 35 minute train ride away from Luxembourg city. It was our last stop with Jane, who was due to leave on Sunday morning. So we decided to spend the Saturday showing her the city. The yearly pentecost cold spell hit Europe with icy wind and some rain, but this didn’t deter us. 
The town was abuzz with marching bands, market stalls and cafe crowds. In the cathedral a singer was just singing the “Ave Maria” as we entered, followed by the arrival of a bride and groom which added a wonderful atmosphere to the already so amazingly beautiful church.
We were very sorry to say good bye to Jane the next morning. She was going back to the Australian winter where currently the temperature is about 15 degrees higher than here. Poor thing! Safe arrivals, Jane!
