Day 104: Kirchzarten to Mulhouse

May 30, 2023

Into the Alsace region

“Until we meet again,” Chris says and Rachel adds “until we eat again.” We start out as warmshowers hosts and guests and end being friends. We say goodbye in the Freiburg city center. They rode in with us showing us the way and are now catching a train to visit Maren’s brother.

We have breakfast with Maren and Chris and ride out together towards Freiburg. It is nice to have guides. They lead us on all the good bikepaths towards the city center where we stop at the cathedral square. There is a market setting up and lots of activity. We say our goodbye’s and they head for the train station while we seek our way out of the city towards France.

The brewery of the beer Patrick and Chris drank last night

The bike lanes in Germany have been designed to be useful, just like we are used to with roads in the US. We would not accept constant dead-ends or meandering paths for cars or stop and go tracks. So many people use bikes here to get around and go to work and it flows beautifully. And no air pollution, no parking problems and healthy people.

As we leave the city we see wine orchards against the hills. We are now in the Alsace region and the Rhine valley. For a bit we are headed south, the wrong way to go to Holland, but necessary to go around the Vogezen Mountains. In the last kilometers of Germany Rachel gets a bee sting on her ring finger that really hurts. We hurry to get her wedding ring off before the finger swells up. “Even the big trucks stop!” Rachel says as we’ve entered the roundabout on a bike path still in Germany. “Don’t expect this much in France,” Patrick warns. Then we cross the Rhine River and into France. The manicured bikepaths and excellent sign posting we got used to in Germany disappear at first, we have to ride on some roads and use our navigation skills and GPS to find our way.

Last town in Germany, Neudorf, decorated the main street with green painted bikes

Crossing the Rhine River and into France

Then there is another nice bikepath that takes us all the way into Mulhouse.

We are staying with Anna, a Warmshowers host, but she might not be home before 4. That is no problem on a nice day like today, we head to the city center and explore the old town. We enjoy a nice, but very expensive, cold beer at the cathedral square, then some more ice cream before we roll-up to Anna’s house.

"I can show the way," this guy says as Patrick is looking at the tablet trying to make sense of the signs pointing to the city center. He gets us easily across the intersection and in the right direction.

We get a nice welcome and settle into one of her guest rooms. Later in the evening a second couple, French, arrive as well. They fix up a nice salad and we get to try several French cheeses. Some are pretty ripe and pungent. We have a nice evening talking with Anna, Jean-Pierre and Sophie. They are very nice to make the effort to speak English for us.

Today's ride: 71 km (44 miles)
Total: 4,135 km (2,568 miles)

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