A very comfortable day today (well apart from those pesky bottom pustulences….which seem to be an on again off again sort of thing…definitively on today!)….with the moderate climbs all well under a 4% gradient…which means one can pedal up at all but full speed!
As we left Strasbourg…..we followed a variety of rivers and canals (it really is a maze!)..
….and finished up heading North on The Canal de La Marne au Rhine…
…which we followed for a good 30km.
Very German names here…but still very much France!
Coffee stop at Bouxwiller…which turned out to be an extraordinary wee town. Very cute.
Once again…it was odd to be spoken to in German…when we are still very much in France….and a fair distance from the border!
It was after coffee that we started our climbing for the day….through the forest of the North Vosges Regional Park.
And across the unmarked border…
…although this sign did appear a few hundred metres into Germany…
…all very pleasant…..
….and that mellow pleasantness continued as we dropped down to our overnight stop here at Blieskastel….an old town which was spared any bombing in WW2.
A wander around town……
…..and the only drama of the day happened in the supermarket. I had completed my payment at the self-checkout….then walked off trying to push open those thigh-high gates you sometimes find in supermarkets. All hell broke loose! Alarms going off! Haha
I had forgotten (not the right word actually…for I never knew to forget!)…to scan my receipt…which then opened said gate! Hohum……
That is our accommodation on the right….a beer garden on the left.
It seemed a shame to waste too much energy!! Haha
The Karlsburg was excellent!! Left their Danish cousin for dead!! Haha! No relationship at all in fact…Karlsburg has been brewed just down the road for over 150 years.
