To Obernai

June 11, 2024

Today was the last day of vineyards. I will miss them, and the ups and downs between villages.

I picked up breakfast and elevenses items at the boulangerie/patisserie conveniently located around the corner, said good-bye to the dogs, and set out for EV 5. It really has been nice to follow the EuroVelo routes so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

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There are so storks around here. Just don’t want to nest in town I guess.

Sorry but I’m not tired of taking photos of bike routes through vineyards yet.

It almost says “Frankenstein.” I thought this was funny. At the time.

I was late for my elevenses so I stopped when I saw a nice little picnic spot outside the village of Blienschwiller. It was under quite the bee-loud tree. The bees and I agreed to ignore each other.

While we’re here I want to say something: get belt drives. Oh I love the belt drive on Red. And the internal geared hub. I never had to think about the drive train at all. It just worked like it was supposed to. That was restful.

Took a short rest under a bee-loud tree. Bee-shouting actually. They were happily very busy here.

While we’re here, let’s talk a little about Big Red. She’s got a belt drive and internal gear hub. I am a convert. Everyone should convert too.

A cockpit beauty shot: Old phone with French eSIM, controller for motor, Garmin GPS, bell with hidden AirTag.

One little detail I forgot to attend to before leaving for this trip was to upload the European maps to my Garmin, so that wasn’t as helpful as I needed. I could follow the track on there at least, so I knew when I was off course. My old phone was my Euro phone. I used RWGPS on that for the navigation. That helped me keep on course too.

Quick release for the stem. Notice the pin that locks it into place either in this position or turned 90 degrees. That was helpful to get through some narrow doors.

The bees did start to get to me after not too long a time, so I moved on. I was still hungry though. The town of Itterswiller arrived just in time.

There’s a good little climb up to the town. I stopped to take a snap of the lovely view back the way I’d come. I turned around to look at the buildings fronting the road and saw a couple of hikers I’d passed earlier walk into the winstub.* If they can do it, I can do it. So that’s how I ended up eating a very large meal in the middle of the day for the first time on this trip. I didn’t regret it.

(* Winstub is Alsatian. Based on the German Weinstube, or wine bar, I imagine. But I have no idea how the French would pronounce this. Vanstoob? Wine stoob? Vin stoob? Assistance requested.)

Pausing to admire the view from Itterswiller. Notice the proximity of villages.

I turned around and saw a couple of hikers go into this winstub. Yeah, lunch here would be a good idea.

Crème brûlée and coffee. This should counteract the vol-au-vent.

An hour and half later, I gathered myself to mount Red and head further up the hill. Within a few dozen meters I had to, just had to, stop to take a photo of another wonderful view.

Itterswiller was the high point of the day in more ways than one. The hill didn’t last long and it was mostly downhill to the flatlands below where I rode the rest of the day.

1783. I’d seen 1588 on a similar stone in a vineyard earlier in the day.

Before Obernai. Storks cleaning up after the farmer. There are quite a few out there.

Sunflowers. In a couple of weeks this will be a lovely area to ride through. The city of Obernai, today’s destination, is in the background.

I found my hotel without too much difficulty and was glad to get to some air conditioning. It wasn’t too warm but it was muggier than I’m used to. For dinner I walked over to the closest place, a McDonald’s. I was unable to order there because I could not figure it out. It was too classy, had different food than I was expecting, was all in French (imagine), my brain was done for the day. Ashamed I could not navigate a McDonald’s for god’s sake, I found a real burger joint and made it through another day.

I could tell you who my neighbor was but then I might have to kill you.

Today's ride: 33 km (20 miles)
Total: 489 km (304 miles)

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