nbjtours

Day two

Strasbourg 92 miles 1598 ft climbed.

We are not sure if we’ve ever seen so many weddings in one day. The first four were at Schloss Favorite where we saw one in progress, one just finishing another having their wedding breakfast and a fourth leaving for their reception.

Not long after this we then cycled into the very upmarket spa town of Baden – Baden , which is a bit like Bath or Harrogate on steroids. Here again in every green space there were wedding parties readying for the ceremonies or having just decamped from one.

The funniest thing we saw was in the photo above where several male guests were examining the engine of the Mercedes wedding car. Obviously more important than the ceremony itself!

Leaving as close to 8.30 as we could we only cycled 500 metres before stopping to see this fabulous flower meadow. Today we did enjoy a bit more nature from the start as we cycled mostly out of town.

The most unusual creature we saw was this Coypu which seemed quite happy in our company. I suspect he was looking for our South American colleague Nick. I certainly stayed away from his large red teeth.

Whilst running along the Rhine the team had to carefully negotiate this large family of geese who were fine and not as aggressive as the swans we have had in the past

We saw several storks, herons, buzzards and kites. Our coffee stop was interrupted by the cuckoo and as ever Chiffchaffs continued to Chiffchaff the whole day.

It only took a little time this morning to get to the Rhine where we immediately came across the site of a Biking ( Viking) cruise ship that was disembarking the dishevelled contents. As ever we decreed never to join that special band of folk.

It was a tidy 35 miles to coffee, mostly along flat terrain although we did leave German soil and entered France at its most easterly point near Lautenbourg even if there’s no signs to indicate this.

Shortly after coffee we then took a ferry back to Germany across the Rhine. A rookie error meant a long wait but what a strange boat it is, as it traversed the rapid current going sideways with its three pronged hull in line with the current.

Not only that but the boat is a roundabout taking three cars each side and up to 28 bikes. It was free though.

Once back in Germany we cycled to the previously mentioned Schloss Favorite and then onto Baden-Baden as ever mainly on well maintained cycle paths. We found the Tourist Office to get our passports stamped and chatted to a very enthusiastic lady who tried to get us to stay.

Leaving Baden- Baden we had our only climb of the day which started on tarmac then ended as a track through the woods which we felt was a better option than the main road out of town.

Because of the ferry delay, and time wandering through Baden-Baden we were now running late and only made it to our lunch stop at 3.30 where Monica was wondering what we had been up to. The only good point was that by this time we had already covered the majority of the days miles and had but 26 to go.

Leaving the lunch stop we then faced mostly a head wind on to the campsite so we each took a turn at the head of the peloton.

Back in France, having left Germany for the last time this trip we crossed the Rhine again ( but on a bridge this time) we now aimed for the city of Strasbourg and as ever found an excellent cycle way. As has been usual most of the route has been on dedicated tarmac cycle paths making our trip much safer. We did have a 5 km gravel section which whilst noisy and we had to take care not to make sudden direction changes we felt was still smoother and better than our pot-holed riddled roads at home!

These pathways took us to within reach of the city centre via a brief stop in front of the European Parliament. Wasn’t life better when the U.K. was part of Europe?

We then fought our way through the hoards of tourists into the magnificent city centre with all its impressive buildings.

By now it was approaching 7 o’clock but Richard spotted the tourist office was still open and I managed to go in and get our passports stamped up – success.

Leaving the city centre via the network of cycle paths by the rivers and canals of the city we only had two miles before getting to our campsite where as usual Nigel and Monica had our beers ready after another long but very satisfying day.

We have promised an earlier start and finish tomorrow. Let’s see if that’s possible.