Day 6 - Hochfelden to Detwiller

We woke up expecting a warmer, sunny day but it was cold and drizzling.  We ate breakfast and got going around 9:30.  Our first stop was the small town of Dettwiller, where there is the Heschung shoe factory.  We walked into the town and walked around for a while looking for it, and finally asked someone who directed us to just outside of the town.  While there were no tours of the factory, they had a large shoe store.  We looked around and David bought a pair of sneakers.

We also found out that the son of the founder of Adidas started an Adidas factory right there as well.

Then we walked back into the town and bought a baguette and some lettuce and a pastry.  Back at the boat we had a nice lunch of yogurt, baguette, jamon, salami and fresh veggies and grapes.  Then we took off. The next lock was only a five minute ride away but when we got there, the lock was closed and when we called the lockmaster there was no answer.  We thought perhaps they were on a lunch break and so we kept trying every few minutes.  I also made multiple calls to various numbers found in our canal map book.  The people who answered the phone tried to be helpful, mostly by trying to find someone who spoke English.  Eventually we got through to the company we rented the boat from who told us that there is a problem with the lock system.  So, we may not be able to move today.  We found out a day or so later that the people who run the lock system were on strike for a day.  Fortunately, we were still just minutes away from Detwiller which has restaurants and stores.  So, we turned around and went back.

We hung out on the boat in Detwiller for a while, and then called our boat rental company.  No, the locks would not be opening today at all.  So, Deena and I decided to go to the center of town and get our hair shampooed and blown dry.  We found several salons and went into one.  A lovely young lady washed and blew out both of our hair.

The "after" picture

Then we met David at a bar nearby where he was waiting.  We looked for the only restaurant in town (besides take out pizza), and it was closed till Oct. 17.  So we went to the supermarket across the street and bought steak, potatoes and salad materials, and made a lovely dinner followed by strudel and a Napoleon that we ate before anyone thought to take a picture!

Steaks on the grill!

                                                                    Voila!  Dinner!