Day 33- Karlsruhe to Strasbourg
If there was a word for today it would be transition…. Today we transitioned across to France not once but twice. The first time was on a barge on the Rhine and the second was across a bridge…. More about that later!
Awake at the normal time of 5.30 am and packed and ready to go by about 6.30…. Getting a real routine about it now which I suspect will be hard to broken I get home.
Steve was on navigating duties today and the ride was essentially a flat ride along the Rhine river for most of the journey.
The weather was almost perfect with cool but cloudless conditions early in the morning and some high clouds later in the day…. And No RAIN or WIND! The maximum temperature was around 28 degrees.
The first stop was for breakfast at the 20 km mark which was not really scheduled as we were supposed to catch a ferry across the Rhine but we were either too early or it was not running! So we searched for a cafe for breakfast to regroup. The cafe we found in Elescheim was perfect and we had a croissants and cakes with a coffee. After resetting our course we were off on the German side of the river to a bridge over the river at about the 35 km point. Yes we left Germany and were in France… the 4th country we have visited on this trip. Shortly after crossing into France I received a welcome note from Orange mobile welcoming me to France…vice la France!!!
So after crossing the river we were able to get back on course again thankfully. The ride was again alongside the river but it was hidden from view due to the levee banks.
At around the 55 km mark we made a crossing of the Rhine again…. This time by barge…. Back into Germany! On crossing we had a snack for lunch being a soft drink and a shared bowl of fries! No doubt a wholesome lunch!
After lunch was off again on the German side of the Rhine to our final destination of Strasbourg. Before we made the final bridge crossing into France we had a final celebratory ice cream sundae in the sister town of Kehl…
Crossing the bridge we had to take a few photos of the occasion as we welcomed our new country of France.
All up I rode 91 kms and climbed about 90 metres…. A flat day!
The pictures today will probably be in 2 instalments as the capacity to download them on the website is limited.
The pictures are:
The route
The first sighting of the Rhine and no ferry !!!!!
The first bridge crossing….. yeh!
Crossing back to Germany by barge! There was a group of Vespa scooters on the barge with us.
A barge traveling along the Rhine…. We saw this several times as we made our way along the river
Chris finds a sneaky short cut!
Me on the border on the final bridge crossing…
Our home for the night in France
