Ribeauvillé to Muhlbach-sur-Munster

June 29, 2024

Accommodation drama

We have been very impressed with the cycle touring in this region. If we were recommending a place to cycle tour for new cycle tourers it would be here in the Alsace. We like it more than riding the Danube or the Loire Valley, although those are wonderful routes. And, of course, there are many more places we haven’t been, but to date the Alsace stands out: (1) It has such an interesting history, having swung back and forth between Germany and France; (2) The food is distinctively different from other regions; (3) As does the wine- Riesling, Gewurtztraminer, Pinot Gris, Muscat. The wines are so reasonably priced relative to the US that you can try them all without worry; (4) The cycling is excellent, varied and there is no need to concentrate on staying on any one route, as it’s all good.

Dave woke up feeling better, although not totally recovered, but wanted to carry on. Again it was a short day - 35 km to Muhlbach-sur-Munster with 510 km of climbing. Muhlbach is nowhere in particular; it just happened to be the closest accommodation I could find to start climbing the following day through the Vosges foothills and over Le Grand Ballon and Le Markstein, two signature French climbs. After the climbing , we had booked a private tour at Hartmanwillerskopf- a WW1 site located high in the Vosges mountains. Tomorrow would be a big day.

But back to today:

The first 25 km went smoothly. More vineyards, people and riders but at a pleasant level. It was extremely warm (85 degrees and muggy) and we would have complained except we have had so much rain that we could not engage in the hypocrisy of complaining now that it was warm and sunny.

Because there were no grocery stores in Muhlbach and we were booked into a flat, we had scheduled a stop in Munster at a grocery store to pick up a few supplies. It was a marvellous grocery - large and with good A/C. We took our time picking up a warm beer (no cold ones), a bottle of cheap rosé and a tuna bowl for lunch. We sat in the grocery store deli and split the bowl and the deli even sold Dave a cold beer on tap, so it was all good.

We then sought out a place for ice cream and it took us 30 minutes to go 2 km and find a place. It just goes like that sometimes. We had the place all mapped out but couldn’t find it and probably took three wrong turns while finally finding it in the searing 2 pm heat. The ice cream was good and hit the spot.

After that we had a 5 km uphill ride to Muhlbach but we were horses to the barn at that point and rode hard.

The accommodation- a small studio flat - turned out to be our most random accommodation choice of the entire trip. Muhlbach is not a tourist town; it has one 2 * hotel (about 1 km up a hill out of town) and a combined bakery/pizza place/convenience store called Au Petite Schittleur. (We ate there twice in 16 hours so I remember it well!) I opted NOT to book a stay at the hotel because there was no a/c or tub. Instead I found this little flat on booking.com which advertised both a/c AND a tub for the princely sum of 128 euros.

The curb appeal of the place left something to be desired.

And the interior was, well, let's go with interesting. We decided to bring the bikes in given the weather forecast which turned out to be a good call!

When we arrived at 3:30 or so there was no obvious person to greet us although a sign outside a small compound said “gites” so we thought we were in the right place. There was a small interior courtyard with a few small flats surrounding it and a young woman did eventually greet us and directed us to our flat.

It’s hard to describe how funny the next hour was regarding our relationship with this place. In terms of what we cared about in that hour after we walked in the door, it was (1) the a/c; (2) the tub and (3) the fridge. (1) The a/c because it was 85 and muggy and Dave was still feeling pretty weak; (2) The tub because we were incredibly tired, hot and sticky; and (3) The fridge because we had a warm beer and bottle of rosé and desperately wanted to drink them, preferably cold.

The A/C: The studio was hot. When I inquired about the a/c, the woman showed us the remote and indeed after punching a button or two air started to come out of the unit although it was of the warm variety. Dave fiddled with the unit for 20 minutes or so with no positive result except for more warm air circulating and finally gave up. Bummer. Out came his little portable fan which has priven to be very useful in situations like this.

The tub: He then turned his attention to the tub. Maybe a cool bath would be soothing. It was a huge two person tub with many mysterious dials. But none of the dials controlled the water temperature. It had one knob that turned on hot water. Dave spent about 20 minutes fiddling with the tub temperature to no avail. On another (cold) day it might have been okay but today he needed to steep in a tepid tub in our baking studio. He inched his way in but after a couple of minutes had to get out because he was sweating! He ultimately resorted to taking a cold shower. Strike 2.

Trying my darndest to figure out the temperature control of the tub.

The fridge: Perhaps a cold beer would do the trick. I went to put the wine and beer in the fridge. But, the fridge was not turned on and was just warm. More fiddling produced nothing but frustration and warm fridge. Strike 3!

So, we are 0 for 3 on this venture. By this point we are laughing hysterically at this place and Dave lays down on the weird bed after a quick shower too tired to move or drink his warm beer. He tried to find the Tour de France on the little studio tv but no luck, of course.

In the interests of full disclosure two hours later we had a totally different relationship with the place: (1) Dave noticed a window by the shower was open a crack; he closed it and suddenly the ac kicked on with cold air! (2) As to the overheated tub, Jill let the water sit for half an hour and when it had cooled down she was able to wallow in a very comfortable tub! (3) Finally, later that afternoon we were fiddling with the light switches and eventually figured out that one of the light switches turned on the kitchen appliances, so the fridge ultimately did turn on. I can’t say it functioned well enough to have a properly cold beer or glass of wine, but at least we nudged the cold drink temp down from downright warm to cool…..

Adding to our afternoon angst was the weather forecast. It had changed dramatically in a way that was likely to alter our plans to ride into the Vosges mountains the following day. A storm was coming in and that evening Muhlbach had a severe storm warning with hail predicted. And, in the morning steady rain and high winds from 8 am to 1 pm were predicted in the mountains where we were planning to ride. We had a 1200 meter climb ahead of us to reach Hartmanwillerskopf for our tour but we really felt like it would be foolhardy to do it in rain and wind, so at some point that afternoon we decided we would have to bag the climbing and cancel the private tour. I am so disappointed as this was something I had really wanted to do.

The story of our trip to France is one of “unfinished business.” There are a number of places we had planned to go but didn’t because of weather and my sprained ankle - and now the Vosges mountains and Hartmanwillerskopf is added to the list. Such is life.

At 6 pm we rallied enough to ride our bikes into “downtown” Muhlbach for our dinner at the pizza place, Au Petite Scheuttler. It actually was a cute place and we ordered the Schleuttler special pizza which was ham, onions, Munster cheese and something called “barkass” which google translate did not recognize but which turned out to be a local cheese. It was a creditable pizza. While we were eating the storm hit early and wildly. Raging wind and hard rain caused my bike to tip over and the electricity in the restaurant went out. It flickered off and on for a few minutes. At some point there was a pause and the storm abated to a degree. We quickly paid our bill and left, anxious to get down the hill back to our flat while there was a break. We wheeled our bikes right into the flat and not two minutes later the storm renewed its fury for the evening. Such is the life of a cycle tourer.

Dinner, a pizza with something called barkass on it.

The rain and Jill's bike came down hard with the gale like winds. 🌬️

An impressive storm, the resurgence of which we escaped by only a couple of minutes.

Today's ride: 36 km (22 miles)
Total: 2,132 km (1,324 miles)

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