To Cernay.

July 29, 2024

A shorter day today with wonderful tail winds.

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Colmar is a gem of an Alsatian town, and its popularity as a tourist destination is well deserved. When we toured through the Alsace back in 2012 on our route from Paris to Frankfurt: via Burgundy, Dijon, south to Chalon-sur-Saone and back north east through Dole, Besancon and north through the Alsace to Strasbourg, we bypassed Colmar for some reason. So, we're glad we made this a stop on this year's tour. A must see town if you're ever in this area, if you can handle the crowds.

We woke up today around 6:30am and decided we'd pay for the hotel breakfast which was not included in the original room price. We often find that the hotel breakfasts are good value, just for the endless coffee alone, as going out for just one grand cafe creme at a cafe will usually run you about 4 Euros. And, don't forget about that sneaky sandwich that we each usually make for our lunch. We were down to breakfast before 7am and on the road just before 8 from Hotel Turenne. A great place to stay just down the road from "Little Venice", and just enough outside of the old town to make it peaceful and quiet. A great place to stay for the last two nights.

The Route des vins d'Alsace is what we've been following for the last few days.

We pushed off this morning under perfect riding conditions, and it didn't take long for us to escape the urban sprawl of Colmar and find our way back onto quiet lanes that weaved their way through the rolling Alsatian landscape of vineyards, with the Vosges mountains rising on our right as we continued our way south. Our route took us along the Eurovelo 5 and Routes des Vins towards the next jewel of the Alsace, the town of Eguisheim.

Eguisheim. If you look carefully, you can see the stork's nest on the Chapelle Saint-Léon IX at right.

The further south we rode, the more the Alsatian plain began to broaden and open up, and the heat produced a haze that shimmered across the vast Rhine valley. To the east, we could barely see the silhouette of the hills of the Black forest in Germany as we continued on towards the town of Rouffach.

We had a quick break in Rouffach. After our break, we headed out of town past the Église Notre-Dame de l'Assomption, when we encountered the police who seemed to be waiting for something. They seemed to ignore us as we cycled through, and then we saw what they were really there for. Around the corner came a very large semi truck towing a massive trailer with scantily clad ladies air-brushed painted on the side. The carnival was coming to town, and this truck looked to be hauling one of the rides. What ensued looked to be an impossible choreograph whereby the police officer was trying to conduct this behemoth of a truck through the eye of a needle, with cars parked on either side. We stood and watched and thought to ourselves, what are they thinking? A moment later, a grey haired older women ran out gesticulating and raising her hands in the air clearly concerned that her car was going to be a casualty of this rather horrible concerto and dance show. The driver of the truck finally exited the cab and assessed the situation; after which he threw his arms up in the air and leered at the police officer who was guiding him. The situation was getting tense, and that was our cue to leave Rouffach.

After Rouffach we began to climb into a beautiful valley towards the town of Soulzmatt, and we gained enough elevation to get some incredible views. We were clearly in a major wine producing town as we passed large businesses that contained piles of pallets of new wine bottles, harvesting and pressing machinery, as well as machines for trimming the grape vines. Even though harvest season is a ways off yet, you could still smell the odor of the processing of past years grapes wafting in the air. I'm not sure why we didn't take more photos today.

Climbing away from Soulzmatt. That's our route up ahead.

In Guebwiller, we stopped in for a fizzy water, and bought some Haribo for a quick sugar fix. We sat on a bench like we usually do when we pass through towns, and just sat and took it all in.

Entering the steamy and broad Alsatian plane. More corn and hay than grapes now.

With a great northeastern tail wind, we were pushed into Cernay by 1pm. Tonight we are staying in a guesthouse where we are required to input a code to access our room. Without too much trouble we were settled into our very nice room, and got cleaned up.

It didn't take us to much time to assess that small Cernay, on a Monday when all the businesses are closed, was not going to be the most interesting place to hang out all afternoon. There's only so much Olympics we can watch on TV, and we didn't want to sit around all day. So, we decided to take the 20 minute train ride to Mulhouse for the afternoon.

Balloon d'Alsace. Highest point in the Vosges mountains. Maybe I'll be back one day to climb it.

We scoped out the breeziest place in the Altstadt for a drink.

Sampling the famous bubbly Alsatian Cremont. Delicious.

When we arrived in Mulhouse, we discovered that many of the businesses, cafes, and restaurants were open. So, we spent a few hours just wandering around until it was time to head back to Cernay. Going to Mulhouse to break up the day was a good decision. With not too many options to eat tonight in Cernay, we decided to have a light dinner and eat in. Tomorrow, we have another relatively short day to Basel, where we're back along the Rhine. See. All our roads do lead to Rhine.

This is just a small selection of the cheese section at the small grocery store here in town. What?

Today's ride: 51 km (32 miles)
Total: 715 km (444 miles)

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