September 4, 2017
Strassbourg
Today was the first day of school in France. This morning as we rode through Colmar there were lots of beautifully dressed children clutching onto their mothers hands. They had brand new carefully chosen school bags. It is rather a touching site and reminded me of the time we were in Russia at the start of the school year. In Russia on that day the girls are all wearing fluffy party dresses and the little boys suits - they are clutching bouquets of flowers for their teacher. It was particularly poignant that year as it was the year after that terrible slaughter in a school on the first day of the school year.
Today was to be so easy, just get on to the Colmar Canal, follow it all the way to its junction with the Rhone Rhine Canal then ride beside that all the way to Strassbourg. Well things didn't start too well, somehow we got on the river, the path wasn't too bad to start with then that familiar deterioration started until there was a tree across the single track. We persisted for a few metres, Ken and his bike fell over, it was almost impossible to turn the bikes around but eventually we did and retraced our steps. There were Rugby players out on a training run so they soon put us right and we were on our way.
It was an easy but long ride. To access any villages you had to go a km or so off the canal. We did this at one point found a SuperU (open) and a very pretty village but it was Monday so cafes were shut. Strassbourg is an exceptionally cycle friendly city and getting to our hotel in the centre by the Cathedral was easy. I felt pretty tired so we have decided to have the day off tomorrow and plan our onward trip to the Mosel. We have rather inadequate information. The Tourist Information was no help at all. We searched a book shop and got a couple of maps that may help. We will also use David and Mauns journal to help us.
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Today's ride: 82 km (51 miles)
Total: 1,671 km (1,038 miles)
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