The Who, the When, the Where and the Route

This time it's a different CycleBlazer team, it's Susan from Paris and Suzanne from Munich on a six-day exploration of bicycle paths and roads in Germany's Black Forest. We will be pedaling east of the French-German border, in those hills across the Rhine that were visible to Janos and me when we were riding in Alsace.

Susan had a window of free time at the same time that Janos had plans to meet up with an old school friend from Hungary. We saw this as a great opportunity to cycle together. I am looking forward to riding and having fun with Susan again after all five of us - Rachael and Scott, Susan, Janos and I - toured together in Burgundy in May. I am also excited to see the Black Forest by bike, new territory for me.

We worked on the logistics of where we should meet. Somewhere between our homes in Paris and Munich seemed obvious, but it had to be somewhere that we could both reach by train without too much hassle. It doesn't help that the train connections between southern Germany and France are not good. For me with a heavy e-bike it was important to have a destination that didn't involve changing trains. We found the solution. Susan will take the TGV from Paris to Strasbourg and I have a direct train connnection to Karlsruhe. The two cities are about 90 km apart, so we will ride to a hotel in between and proceed from there the next day. Once we hit upon this idea, we both immediately made reservations for our bikes on our respectve trains for September 5 going and September 10 return. We didn't want to risk their being sold out on the days we wanted to travel.

The next step was to create a four day loop in the Black Forest that would end somewhere between Strasbourg and Karlsruhe again, and to book our hotel rooms along the way. That proved to be not too difficult since we will be traveling in early September (not August!) and we were booking well enough in advance.

So that's the plan. I'll be a bit nervous about taking the train with my bike without Janos to help me, but they say it's good to leave your comfort zone once in a while. And certainly there will be some road or train angels to give an old lady a hand.

A screenshot from Komoot - The route goes clockwise starting in Rastatt and ending near Bühl. After her train ride Susan has the longer route to Rastatt, where we will meet at the beginning. I'll have a few more kilomters at the end back to Karlsruhe to make my train. That part is all flat, no problem!

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Steve Miller/GrampiesSounds like a wonderful trip. Have fun-and tell us all about it.
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2 years ago

Keith AdamsI love the ongoing convergence of CycleBlazers making deliberate plans to ride together.
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2 years ago

Cathryn RamsdenI'm already excited to read this! We love the Black Forest. There is a fantastic Sommerrodelbahn in Gutach which we all love and would heartily recommend for 'old ladies'. *

* I genuinely dream of being an 'old lady' like you
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2 years ago

Suzanne GibsonTo Steve Miller/GrampiesI certainly will, and hope I don't take forever.
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2 years ago

Suzanne GibsonTo Keith AdamsQuite amazing, isn't it!
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2 years ago

Suzanne GibsonTo Cathryn RamsdenI remembered you love the Black Forest. I'll have to check the route and see if we are near Gutach.
I can tell, you are going to be a very spritely "old lady" when the time comes.
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2 years ago

Keith AdamsTo Suzanne GibsonIt's *cool*!
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2 years ago

Suzanne GibsonTo Cathryn RamsdenI just saw that Gutach is farther south than our route takes us. Next time.
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2 years ago

Susan CarpenterThanks Suzanne for doing the lion's share of planning for this trip. I'm glad we were able to fit it in and look forward to seeing you soon!
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2 years ago

Scott AndersonI’m excited for both of you and anxious to follow along. Congratulations on finding a plan that makes this possible.
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2 years ago