Saverne - Oberhausen bei Kirn (Bruttig-Fankel) - European Divide Trail

May 15, 2023 to May 17, 2023

Saverne - Oberhausen bei Kirn (Bruttig-Fankel)

Stage 17

Saverne lies on the Canal de la Marne au Rhine, and the Trail followed the canal and then headed toward Hattmatt, Bouxwiller and Ingwiller.

Leaving Saverne on the Canal de la Marne au Rhine

I'd decided it was time to review the ban on "paths" and followed the trail into the forest. What a treat! Beautiful trails, some single track, and lots and lots of of freshly-leaved trees. It was all fully ride-able and completely enjoyable.

Learning to trust the Trail - after weeks of fearing "paths", time to test "German paths"

I crossed into Germany somewhere in the forest and my first German town was Ludwigswinkel - just loving these names!

My hotel in Hinterweidenthal was convieniently located next to the B10 motorway, which unfortunately meant riding 300m on that very busy motorway. Of course I rode it very fast, and as far to the right as possible. There were a few toots. I don't think they were toots of approval.

Next morning, more delightful green forest paths, with very few human sightings, got me to Kaiserslautern for a late lunch of the bakery rolls I'd purchased in Hinterwidenthal. It was my fourth day of riding through vividly green forest, and while there were lots of pig rooting signs on the paths, indicating a healthy wild pig population, I was pleased to emerge into a more urban environment at Weilerbach.

My hotel in Weilerbach had sent instructions on how to let myself in and retrieve the room key from a lock-box. All good until the first number didn't open the door. It did open another entry door, and that led up stairs to an unlocked door on to a balcony, and a second unlocked door to the corridor to my room. The tight security continued later that night when I returned from dinner and found the entry door propped open with a brick. It was still like that when I left the next morning!

Offwiller, France - this may be Roman, and is quite old...would have read the sign, but my french is not that good!

Earlier in the week I had arranged to meet Maaike (who we'd had dinner and lunch with at Lake Ohau Lodge and Omarama on Sounds2Sounds in February) in Cologne on Sunday. I also decided to make a rest day in Cologne, as I've ridden for 10 days since Geneva, and am in week 7 of my European tour.

With a little more investigation I realised the Moselle and Rhine Canals were very close by. My revised plan is to ride the cycleways on both these canals to get to Cologne.

To complete Stage 17 (183km, 3120m climbing) I pedalled for 50km into a 20kmph Northerly headwind. This did feel rather like hard work, especially when immediately followed by another 63km to get me to Bruttig-Frankel, on the Moselle. My total: 258 km, 3480m

Stage 17 Saverne to Oberhausen bei Kirn (Bruttig - Fankel)

Today's ride: 258 km (160 miles)
Total: 3,630 km (2,254 miles)

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Rose ParkinHi Robyn and Suzanne - thanks for the feedback about the missing photos. I did have trouble initially getting photos to load, but I think I have fixed that by making the photos REALLY small (ie using a snip).
When I look at the journal, outside the editing view, I can see all the photos.
I will contact the site admin, and see if he can identify the cause of our issue.
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2 weeks ago

Rose ParkinTo Rose ParkinOK, I reloaded that page, and it seems to be behaving.
Please let me know if you cannot see all of the photos now - and happy reading!
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2 weeks ago