Day Thirty Five: Marckolsheim to Mulhouse: A very tough day: (Year 35: 2002)

October 25, 2017

Flash Back to 2002:

Raising turkeys and chickens was soon to expand greatly as an activity for us, as was marketing preserves. These activities always had us working hard together and supporting each other to get things done.

But they continued to run the farmers market stall.

This song sung by Bette Middler has often been mentioned by Dodie as expressing her feeling for me. Aww!

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Fast Forward to 2017, France:

Sometimes I wake up with vertigo - a dizziness so extreme that I really can not move. It only happens about once a year, and it goes away on its own. But then I need to just stay in bed for at least half a day.

This was the day this affliction decided to afflict me. It was an extreme case too. At 4:30 a.m. I crawled to the washroom (quite a distance in our large apartment) but could not make it up to the toilet (a low position usually reserved for politicians). Weakened, I slithered back to wake Dodie and tell her we would probably miss our booking in Mulhouse.

But Grampies do not necessarily quit that easy. Dodie gave me some anti-nausea drug and I made it first onto the bed and eventually to sitting at the table. I felt like Wesley in The Princess Bride, as he waits for enough strength to return (after being mostly dead) to fight the evil prince Humperdinck. In my case, the question was how long until I might balance a bike.

The answer was 9:30 - still lots of time to reach Mulhouse!

A last look at Marckolsheim. This blue house wound up in our photos the other time we were here as well.

To help us make a swift trip of it, we again ignored the on road and wiggly route supplied by our Bikeline guide, and hopped back on the Rhine-Rhone canal path that had served us well in coming from Strasbourg. This worked well, and took us directly to Neuf Brisach, the first major stop.

Neuf Brisach was built by Louis XIV's famous military engineer, Vauban, and it really is a gem. Intended mainly as a fort, it has three lines of walls, arranged in an octagonal star pattern. Inside, the streets are laid out on a rectangular grid, and most buildings are solid square two and three story affairs.

We got a couple of shots of the fanciful animal sculptures that are at some of the gates, and admired the central square, but that was about it, since I needed to wobble all the way to Mulhouse yet. Before leaving, though, we dropped in to the Tourist Information, just to make sure that the canal would do the job for us, and to be clear about how to get back on it. TI assured us that the canal would do fine, and instructed us right out of one gate to get onto the "Hardt" canal, and then to move over to the Rhone-Rhine at a quite close crossover point.

At the gates of Neuf Brisach. There are several of these art pieces at the various gates.

In case we ever stay in Neuf Brisach this sure looks like the place to be - The Two Roses hotel.

The plan of Neuf Brisach, with its geometric arrangement.

Buildings in Neuf Brisach are solid and large.

The Hardt canal turned out to be an irrigation pipeline sort of thing, with a rough road beside. We only learned that after scouting around, running into either big roads or dead ends repeatedly, for at least an hour. The pipeline did not lead us to the canal either. More scouting, more peering at GPS screens, another hour gone. Finally we bumped into the canal - an unmarked access. But there was a canal worker there and he assured us there was a bike path along it, to Mulhouse. Great.

In fact the path started out well, and we were glad to think we would not be on the roads laid out by Bikeline, many of which had a lot of traffic when we looked over towards them yesterday from the canal.

We spun along fairly happily for a while, only taking care not to fall in the canal in spots where the bank was eroded and the "trap" covered by fallen leaves. But at some point some unknown person had decided to make the path nice an durable by putting down a layer of larger stones. This is a common problem for cyclists. In our case, we just plowed on - no option really - and I felt it was costing me about twice the effort to maintain even our minimal speed.

Added to this was the slight upward tilt of the canal, and a slight headwind. It seemed all calculated to test whether I really did have the strength to reach Mulhouse. After a long while we had really had it, a resolved to jump onto the next real road, no matter what.

Our resolve melted when the next real road proved too busy to do any jumping at all. So we crossed it (with difficulty) and ran into the point where even the rough gravel ended. Now what?

Now a road angel appeared, in the form of a man on a bike - we never did get his name. He lived in the next village, and confirmed that we were not going to get to Mulhouse this way. He had a few suggestions, but he could see they were complicated enough that he had better guide us.

So off we three went, benefitting a bit from being three and not two, to cross some nasty streets. And even our local ran into a fresh impasse. Then we had to take to the fields, to go over and get on the next nasty road. This is not the first time we have been in traffic with a French local. If still alive, they are both brave and cautious, in a fluid mix. Dodie can be pretty good too, and in one case it was good that she has super duper hydraulic brakes. Some dope in a car went though a stop sign, and both Dodie and another car had to slam on the brakes.

Finally our guide had us on a street where he could say - straight ahead in Mulhouse. Whew! We would have had no hope, GPS or not, without him.

This Hardt canal was not exactly a canal and it did not take us exactly to where TI said it would.

We would up facing all sorts of views much like this.

The canal path was picturesque and fine, until the surface turned to boulders.

The canal is decommissioned and at several locks these Archimedes screw turbines have been installed. Each one generates power about 1/4 of a standard wind turbine.

We have gathered a bit of an impression so far that Mulhouse may have a pleasant historic centre, and even some cycle paths, but mostly it is pretty wild. Even after our man put us on the right way, we found ourselves blocked by roads that were absolutely just too high traffic.

When the path turned to this, our travel became a lot tougher. Note, just because this is shot at ground level does not mean I collapsed!

Trying to escape the bouldery path we were confronted by stuff like this.

Even our local guide had to strike out cross country at one point

Here we are getting our final instructions for where to go next.

Mulhouse was defended by high traffic roads, like this. But we worked our way around and eventually did get into more bike friendly spaces.

We worked around these roads and finally made our way to the beginning of the old town - Rue de Sauvage. That is the street on which our Booking was to be found. Sort of.

In the world of places to stay there are real hotels, with reception desks. But then there are B&B's, or "apartments", where you need to phone the people to come and open up for you, or you need to go to some remote location to find them and get the key, and then go find the actual room. Often Booking only fully informs you of these cute details in their confirmation email - the one that also tells you that you have already paid and that there are no refunds.

The place we had was well named: "Le Secret". It turns out to be a black door beside a shop, at the beginning of a pedestrian street. You are supposed to phone a number an hour before to let them know you are arriving. We did that, and we called again from in front of the black door. In both cases not only did no one answer, but the answering machine was full.

Since we were in downtown, we were fortunate to have the Tourist Information nearby, and miraculously open. They put us in a hotel across the street, for cheaper than Le Secret. We have phoned Booking to demand a refund, and they already replied "tough luck". Of course they have no hope of making that stick. If we could conquer the Rhine-Rhone canal, what chance do they have!

After the debacle of Le Secret Centre not answering the phone to bring us the key, Tourist Information found us this pink hotel (the best kind). Here I have a table and chair and good internet - the three most critical things!

News Update - Booking.com

After 2 emails, 3 phone calls to Booking, and one exasperating call to the manager of "Le Secret Centre", Booking is coughing up a good will 50 euro refund on the total 68 euro cost. The summary of the case is that the property failed to answer at the phone number provided to Booking, an so to us, but they had sent an email during the day with an alternative phone number. De facto, we cyclists, out on some forlorn canal, are being expected to check email during the day of the booking in case the property or Booking want to change the terms on which they took our money. To say the least we are not pleased, but we only succeeded in moving them from their initial offer of zero up to 50 euros. I guess we would have to sue somebody for the remaining 18.

Today's ride: 63 km (39 miles)
Total: 1,249 km (776 miles)

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