I was ready to move on from Eguisheim. I’m good with half-timbered life now. And I was definitely done riding on cobblestones. I wasn’t done riding through the vineyards, though, or with riding through the villages.
Today’s goal was Kintzheim, which is outside the city of Sélestat. EV 5 stayed pretty much in the flatlands but that didn’t really appeal to me. Heatmaps pointed me to a popular regional route, VV111, that ran more across the toes of the Vosges but had some steep climbs. Ha! says Big Red, what’s steep? I decided I’d decide when I got there which way I wanted to go. The old legs were tired, and so was the rest of me. I didn’t know why. The pedaling certainly wasn’t difficult, nor were the mileages. Could always do better with the hydration and nutrition I guess.
It wasn’t until many days later that I think I hit on the answer: I had to do a lot more work than I was used to with that heavy bike and baggage, especially because I got on and off so much. I would stop for photos every half kilometer, or stop to read something, to admire the view, etc. That’s one difference from recumbent riding I hadn’t thought of training for. With my trike, I just stand up then just sit down. No negotiating with 85-90 pounds of bike while trying getting on or off or just pushing it around. I’d been getting a good full-body workout. So it wasn’t iron-poor tired blood. I was just tired. But I didn’t know that then.
Karen Poret“Iron poor tired blood”..oh, no the Geritol ad slogan… Thanks for letting me know how REALLY old I am, Kathleen! Reply to this comment 3 months ago
So, good-bye Eguisheim and the folks at the auberge who took good care of me and Red. There was a nice little grocery in the center of the village - open on a Sunday! - so grabbed some provisions there, saluted the stork nests across the square, and headed out.
One last look at my new stork friends atop the Chateau St-Leon. Bye, Eguisheim, you old storcka-dorf, you!
Back to the vines within a half kilometer. This couple slowed down to stay out of the photo, but I wanted them in it if it was all right with them. There was some joking about derrières as they proceeded.
Turckheim, all of six kilometers down the road, was the decision point. Tired be damned. I voted for the funner way, and it turned out to be my favorite day of this leg of my trip. The ups and downs and the towns and vines and views all delighted me.
Scott AndersonTurckheim! We biked through here in 1996 on our ride from Prague to Paris. My memory of Turckheim is that we bought three bottles of wine there: one for ourselves, one for my parents, and one for. Coworker who was a wine aficionado and always wanted to see Alsace.
Besides the fact that I can’t taste anything anyway, the part of this that’s the funniest for me now is that somehow we managed to cram them all into my panniers and carry them on to Paris. Reply to this comment 3 months ago
It was a beautiful day. Lots of people were out riding, day trippers and cycle tourers. There were also a lot of hikers, some out for the day but several looked like they were in for a longer haul. I started noticing wayfinding signs for hiking routes along with the cycling signs. They often coincided but the hiking routes sometimes went into the vineyards.
At Turckheim I decided I wanted to take the high road instead of staying on the standard wine route. And it made all the difference. Going up!
Katzenthal goes all in on the cat theme. Note the cat and paw prints painted in the road; they were on the entire route through the village. It also has a thal or valley. The road dips steeply after this.
A fierce beastie who barked and barked upon my arrival at my apartment in Kintzheim. This little gal wasn’t a whole lot bigger than my foot. Her name is Joussy.
Here’s the other fierce beastie, mom, otherwise known as Gizmo. Full size chihuahua. Also quite vocal. They both turned tail as tried to befriend them.
3 months ago