82 km today...70 in the right direction: Mittersheim to Saverne

September 11, 2014

10 steps forward 1 step back... I (Keith) started my morning off with a short walk to check out the local bakery before breakfast. Within 30 seconds I was approached by "Le chien of the day" (we are now in France). He was too shy to give his name and his human was nowhere in sight. So his name remains a mystery. I will call him "Oscar the Shy One". Oscar was very reluctant to allow me to take his picture.

The breakfast I am sorry to say was a "3 jammer" which is what we expected in France. It was comprised of coffee, nice fresh baguette with butter and jam plus a sweet cake thingy. The dinner last night at the hotel more than made up for it so there really was no need for a big breakfast anyway. How did we eat all that food last night?

Our day was enjoyable but not quite as straight forward as the two previous days on the Saar. The first part of the bike path was excellent, however the bike path deteriorated as the following sequence of photos will show. Unlike the Germans the French don't seem be concerned with such things as signage. We made several navigational errors today and had some laughs with three fellow cycle tourists from Germany who were making the same mistakes. Our biking day ended with about 15 km of great paved path along the canal.

The canal system continues to amaze me. Much of it is elevated above the surrounding landscape. During the first part of the ride there was a lock every km or so. The bike path was level between the locks with an estimated 3 or 4 meter climb at the lock. So while we were climbing it is really only at the locks where you have to go up to the next level. Lots of charter boats on the canals today enjoying a great day.

Where our bike path deteriorated to packed gravel we had to make our way around an area where the canal goes into a tunnel. At this point we were on some secondary roads. We got directions from a group of hikers and rode on. Just not completely in the right direction as the pictures will show.

We are now in Saverne in the Hotel Europe and very comfortable. We checked in just as the rain started.

We are both feeling great on the bikes and have a short 30 or 40 km ride into Strasburg tomorrow.