Four countries, one day, one (slightly insane) longboarder

[Deus_Horribilus]

No doubt you have all looked at a map of Europe and seen it. A little
smush on the map between Belgium and Germany, that forgot to be absorbed.
That's the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

I am one of those people that when they look at maps, they find places
with unusual features, and dream of going to see them, so of course, when
you are only 3 hours by train from Luxembourg - there's no choice about
it. However, my holiday trip stopped off at a few places on the way...

The Luxembourg Odyssey

I had foregone the train from Trier (in Germany) in order to skate along the Mosel river to the
Luxembourg border (about 17km). Unfortunately, I lost track of the bike
path, and ended up having to skate a good part of the journey on the main
highway, which was less than fun. However, I survived long enough to cross
the bridge between the two countries, achieving my goal of skateboarding
across an international border. However, I was left a little unsatisfied
by this, and when I got my ticket from the train station in Luxembourg,
which gave me unlimited travel in the entire country all day for about $6
(I'd like to see that back in Australia), I decided to do something stupid. I
caught the train to the city, changed platforms and kept on going to
Rodange, on the other side of the country.

I got off the platform, crossed the tracks and skated down the road 400m
into Belgium. From there, I began a mindless skate along back roads and
through villages, with the occasional stop to ask for directions in broken
French (which is about the same as Belgian French anyway) and finally
found the road to Mont St Martin, which took me across the border into France down a nice hill section.

Once I had crossed that border, it was a matter of getting back to Rodange to make the
train, which was made difficult by a lack of roadsigns, a factory outlet mall (i.e. mallrats in cars), bad traffic at the
Luxembourg border (an aside: petrol is about EUR0.10 cheaper per liter in
Luxembourg, so after the border with France there is a stretch of about 20
petrol stations, all full with cars filling up), and a massive cramp in my
left leg.

However, I had managed to skate across four international borders in one
day, which was pretty cool:

Germany-Luxembourg (Wasserbillig)
Luxembourg-Belgium (Rodange)
Belgium-France (Mont St Martin)
France-Luxembourg (Longwy)

In the end I made it back to the train, and onward to Luxembourg city. Skated across
the bridge into town, and dropped my stuff off at the hostel. In total I think I skated close to 50km (30 miles) that day. To top it off, the next day the local in-line skating scene were holding an open day for people, and had closed off a section of road in the centre of town to make a circuit, with police approval and everything. I rocked up and asked if I could ride the track (about 2kms long) and they were more than cool with it. What a country.

If you ever find yourself out this way with a deck at hand, give it a go. And don't forget to check out Luxembourg City, it's a great old town.

[NWFresh]

Man thats Epic!
I could only dream of doing something so expansive
Transportation in Beaverton is limited to cars, and our light-rail goes nowhere...man im jealous

[Rich C]

Cool! The extent of my foreign skating has been Florida and, er, Wales...

[raven6241]

I still love reading that dude. Top story! :thumb:

[tofman]

great stuff deus,

maybe we ought to break that record and add holland to the package. guess i could do it by car. but that'll make it al contesty 'n stuff.
nice story though.

greetz tofman

[lexx]

Thats fucking A!
I love europe.

[Deus_Horribilus]

maybe we ought to break that record and add holland to the package.

If it wasn't for the fact that I had to check out late from my hostel in Trier and check in at my hostel at Luxembourg City, I would have done that one too... maybe next time eh? I have been contemplating the idea of skating across an entire country, but I am thinking Liechtenstein North-South looks like a dead easy one at about 25km top to tail (East-West is even shorter, at 5km, but that is all hills). I'm going there anyway (another dot on the map).

My next big ride is to go from my place in Bonn and skate along the Rhein to Linz am Rhein (about 37km away). Mostly good path, and if you avoid Sundays where every bicyclist and their dog/kid is out, reasonably quiet too.

[Directive0]

Bravo, great story!

[enjoisoad]

I have been contemplating the idea of skating across an entire country,

vatican city you'll be done in 20 min

[ChaosSmashKill]

Thats quite an adventure 8) , and I thought it was tough skating a town over to the record store was tough.Much respect.

[BOMBHILLER]

Do you have a pic of the skate that made the trip with you??

Any pic of the skate trip??

Nice ride...

BTW, have you already thought of crossing a continent border with your skate??

[Deus_Horribilus]

BTW, have you already thought of crossing a continent border with your skate??

Sorry man, no pics of the trip, I have no camera. I ride a Surf One No-Ka-Oi with Indy 180s, Bones Reds and Krypto 70s. The setup is for cruising, though it can pick up good speed on hills, I just lack the protection to test it fully.

As for continent borders, unless I go to Turkey in the next few months and they let me put the board on the plane, it is probably out. With the exception of the 'fuzzy' border between Asia and Europe on the Urals in Russia, there is no really accessible border other then Istanbul.

Oh, and an addendum to Tofman's earlier comment about skating over the Netherlands border in addition... you can go for it, the Netherlands is a bit further north than I thought.

[tofman]

yeah it's quite a drive, but well worth it. i'll have to see if i get bored, for now i'm too damn busy.

[VA]

your story reminds me of that movie 'rules of attraction' where the guy is talking real fast

[raven6241]

Only I doubt this had lots of nekkid girlies.

[VA]

does chicky in your avatar have a BEARD!?

[raven6241]

does chicky in your avatar have a BEARD!?

[VA]

awwwww man. that's wrong.


and that story needs all the drugs too...imagine how much cooler you trip would have sounded with an 8-ball,some e, and some naked chicks?

[raven6241]

awwwww man. that's wrong.


and that story needs all the drugs too...imagine how much cooler you trip would have sounded with an 8-ball,some e, and some naked chicks?

You'd also appreciate these then... not so much wrong as freaky.



This is Aphex Twin who does some awesome dance music, and has some awesome videos thanks to Chris Cunningham.

[VA]

is that really them? it seems really weird and creepy, but for some reason doesn't suprise me...at all.