Colmar to Hazlach im Kintzigal

July 3, 2024

An Adventurous and Long Day

We have a long rainy day's ride back into Germany.

Last night, even after our fun pork knuckle dinner, we went to bed frustrated. We had a long 87 km ride ahead of us the following day and the weather forecast was for rain all day. One of the themes of this trip is bad weather. I normally never plan a ride this long but sometimes you just can’t avoid it. We decided we wanted to ride back through the Black Forest in Germany but had a limited number of days to do it. Our destination today was Hazlach im Kinzigtal in the far southern part of the Black Forest. Our longest day’s ride before this (at least while we have been together in Europe) was a ride on the Danube two years ago of 81 km.

When we woke up the weather forecast had changed and rain was delayed until 1 to 2 pm. That put us in a great mood so we gathered our gear early and quite happily. It wasn’t a sunny day - in fact the clouds were quite low-hanging and full and it was chilly - but if it didn’t rain for awhile we would be ecstatically happy. The upshot was that we rode like demons (for us) for the first 3 and a half hours. I have realized that we typically dawdle a lot when we ride. I realized this when we rode in Spain on our Trek Travel ride. The group had an intensity when they got on the bike that we don’t have. Everyone had a strong drive to get from point A to B as quickly as possible. We, on the other hand, enjoy stopping and smelling the roses. We were always the last in on the day and to the rest stops.

In any event, today we rode hard and only stopped once to quickly share an apple until 12:30 when we had a bakery stop. For the first three and a half hours the route was flat.

At the French/German border we rode through Neuf-Brisach, which was constructed beginning in 1698 be a fortified town to protect France from the Holy Roman Empire and later, Germany. After hostilities in the area of the Rhine, a treaty was signed whereby France lost the town of Brisach on the west side of the Rhine to the Holy Roman Empire. This new city, Neuf -Brisach, was built to replace it and it was designed by the famous military architect Vauban. I’m not sure our photos will do it justice but its walls are perfectly concentric.

Crossing the Rhine and wistfully bidding adieu to France.

Neuf-Brisach: Check out the funky configuration of this town's fortifications!

We only skirted the town but even outside the walls, there was plenty to see including this sculpture.

After enjoying the mellow beauty of the French Alsace region we crossed the Rhine and Germany hit us in the face with its industry and intensity.

The French have their roadside baguette dispensers, but the Germans will let you pick up a bottle for the road.

We came across a busy agricultural area in which it was berry picking season and it took all my will power to not pluck a few of these ripe specimens.

Red currants were resplendent on their vines.

Cycle touring enhances your joy in simple pleasures and our bakery stop today was a case in point. Our coffee and pastry tasted delicious, yet I’m sure if we had been driving it would have been a pretty ho-hum experience.

The ride after the bakery was more complicated: for one, it started to rain lightly and two, we confronted the sole climb of the day at about the 60km point and three, we were suddenly on busier roads. So, our attention span had to kick in for all those reasons. Nonetheless we were feeling pretty good about the day, particularly because a heavy deluge was predicted for around 3 pm and we knew now we would arrive before that. (Famous last words).

We arrived in Hazlach and our German guesthouse was just across the river, a stone’s throw away. Unfortunately, Komoot had directed us to cross the train tracks at these scary steps down into an underpass. The steps had a very poorly designed narrow ramp for bikes and the railing on it would impede our panniers. We looked at it for a few long moments and I said to Dave that if we used it I would have to carry my panniers down separately. The hard part was we couldn’t tell what we were getting into on the other side to ascend back up. Of course, by this time it had started to rain. We looked at Google maps and Dave sorted out another route which would add but a few km to our ride. We would have to ride in some busy traffic but we were so close to our destination we actually were in a pretty cheerful state.

Navigating these steep steps would have been difficult even without our panniers.

We set off, Dave leading and the traffic was terrible; big noisy trucks on a 4 lane commercial road, approaching a ramp to go onto the French version of an interstate highway. After about a half of a km I felt my back tire wiggle and in another few hundred meters I knew I had a flat. There was nowhere to stop, no shoulder and so I kept going until I felt it spin out and I couldn’t control it anymore. I quickly stopped and hauled my bike up the curb. As I came around a bend there was an overpass with some shelter underneath it so I scooted there as best I could. In the meantime Dave was a hundred meters ahead of me and through the next roundabout. He turns to wait for me, sees me madly waving and waves back, motioning me to continue. He is figuring that I hate the route and want to turn around and is he telling me it’s okay and we are through the worst of it. I shake my head and motion him back. The traffic is so loud that verbal cues are useless. I finally unhook my phone off the phone mount and call him and before I can say “I have a flat” he jumps in to report the traffic is better after the roundabout. When I finally have a chance to say “I have a flat” he starts laughing, and I was laughing too.

It took us about 45 minutes to change the flat. We were about 3 feet away from the string of busy traffic and provided lots of entertainment for all those truck drivers while we sorted through tools and began the process. Several people helpfully let us know there was a bike shop at the next roundabout. Indeed Dave had discovered that himself but it was Wednesday afternoon- so of course, the bike shop was closed! The one saving grace- and it was a big one - was that we were under the overpass - so out of the now pouring rain.

It's raining, so of course it's time for a flat.

We arrived at our guesthouse around 4 pm, drenched and relieved. It was an old family-owned place, called Moser Blum, with a local feel and all German visitors - except us. The room had a shower but it was the best one I have ever had with weird jets shooting out at your stomach, chest and back. After 90 km that shower was almost as good as a bathtub! Plus the room had robes, a Dave favorite. We curled up on the bed to watch a Tour de France sprint stage; it was wonderful because Mark Cavendish won the record-setting 35th Tour stage so we were texting with friends in all the excitement. (Sorry to all you readers who don’t follow cycle racing).

That night at dinner the vibe was so different from our 2 months of civilized, quiet dining in France. It was a full with a boisterous German crowd. We split a venison stew for dinner.

A bummer about German hotels, relative to French ones, is that German rooms rarely have a tea/coffee kettle and cups for a morning cup. For this reason we carry a portable tea kettle but we still need to scrounge cups. That evening we had a pretty hilarious interaction with 3 different staff people after dinner when we requested 2 tea cups to take to our room. It eventually resulted in a wait person bringing us two teapots of water of with tea bags/ sugar/cookies etc! Ahh, the funny habits of American cyclists puzzled them greatly.

Today's ride: 90 km (56 miles)
Total: 2,279 km (1,415 miles)

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Steve Miller/GrampiesWe also carry an electric kettle, for thermos'to go coffee/hot chocolate , but also carry collapsible silicone travel cups. Such luxury.
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