Distance 105km
Total. 470km
We were on on our bikes again by 8.30am....we don’t hang around. I had my frühstück of two bowls of fruit and fibre as fuel and a cod liver oil tablet to ease the joints. Our bodies and bikes have been coping well, so far. However, Janice is consistently having a ‘screw loose’, but most of you knew that when she agreed to come on the trip! I repeatedly need to tighten a screw that holds the pannier to the frame above the wheel....she must have too much in the panniers. On a different note...she is doing very well on the non-whining front. We hadn’t even got anywhere booked to stay tonight...and Janice was not even concerned.
We cycled up the German side of the Rhein and had coffee after completing 40km at Briesach. Then a short hop across the border....
....into France and to the town of Neuf-Briesach. What an interesting place it was. It definitely felt like France and it had large town fortifications built around 1800 by Vauban who also did the fort at Besançon.
How about that for a town plan. It is largely still intact and you can walk around it. We didn’t have time.
Off we travelled north to the next town of Markolshiem which is pretty but is also known for its small museum dedicated to the Maginot Line. This is a defensive line built by the French between 1930 and 1939 to keep out a possible German invasion. It wasn’t a great success in that the Germans just went north, through Belgium to avoid it. We did see a couple of sentry posts that still exist. By this stage we had joined Le Canal du Rhône au Rhin which runs almost parallel with the Rhin.
The canal is very straight and flat but there was a ‘cheeky’ wind in our faces that made the cycling tougher than in should have been. We wanted to get to within striking distance of Strasbourg for a city visit tomorrow. We eventually aimed for the French town of Erstein and found a hotel. We call it a hotel, it does have beds, bed linen and towels but it isn’t great in the decor...and the shower leaks into the bathroom floor and the sink is hanging off but never mind, it’s not too expensive and the town is pleasant.
The town is unpretentious but it has a lot of very old, very original timber framed buildings. The church was grand too. We have been eating on the hoof today and we enjoyed our pate and baguette with tomato followed by a pain aux raisin dessert on a bench outside the church. That’s how to eat in France...as long as it’s sunny anyway.
Back to the headline story.....we covered 105km today and it’s a record distance for Janice by quite a way. Well done Jan!
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