Day 61: Basel, Switzerland to Mulhouse, France

September 20, 2015

We were really crabby about the Stadhof Hotel, no doubt for good reasons related to their lack of value for money, but mainly because of the rude manager from last night. Good public relations can cover up a lot of shortcomings, but bad public relations can ruin even a good place. The whole situation was capped when a father and probably seven year old arrived in the adjoining room just before midnight. There ensued a lot of loud talking, shouting, and giggling that might as well have been in our room, so thin were the walls. Eventually, of course, we had to yell at them. In the early morning we then made no effort to whisper or be quiet as we got ready to leave. We consoled ourselves with thoughts of the scathing review we will leave for the place on Booking.com.

We did just a brief tour through a bit of Basel downtown and old town. To be sure, both are very nice. We noticed that the high end fashion stores so prominent in Milan are to some extent here as well. Last chance to buy a CHF 3000 sweater!

Downtown Basel with trolley and bicycles

The area of the Munster was still as pleasant as yesterday, but we found that we could not get in to the cathedral until 11, which was way too late. So we whizzed down a short hill and arrived at the river side. Here we had a great view of the oldest of the bridges. It has a little tower on it, where the lady yesterday told us prisoners were kept. In an early implementation of waterboarding, they were lowered into the river ina metal cage, she said.

The river bank gave all sorts of lovely views of houses and the the bridge. But one also could not miss that Roche tower, sticking up so out of tune with everything else.

Here at last is one dragon still alive (not killed by St George!)

The sticky up Roche tower in contrast to all other buildings

As we headed north on the river, it was not long before the beautiful old town fell behind and gave way to the industrial area dominated by chemical companies. Four years ago, when we first passed by here on the way to Vienna from London, we had seen only this area, and totally missed old Basel. At the time I had theorized that there must be a nice old town somewhere, but we did not know where. Now we do!

Hooray, we are on EV6, our first and most favourite route

The kind fo scene along the Rhine that was all we saw the first time around

The area near Basel is called the Three Country Region, because France, Germany, and Switzerland all meet at a point here. The point is called the Three Countries Point, or Dreilandereck, or Pylone des Trois Frontieres. We cycled down and took a picture of the pylon that stands on the spot. Cool. Parked just nearby was one of those long German river cruise ships, this one out of Hamburg. As normal, the crew were washing the outside, while the passengers were led down for a look at the pylon.

Border crossing (unused) into Germany. We were in Germany for no more than ten minutes today

Near the pylon but not so easy to get to from there is a new passerelle over to the French side. We got on this, and just like that were out of Switzerland, clutching the tattered remains of our budget. Just on the French side is a system of parks and recreation things, including provision for kayaking, running, and cycling. The first park is called the Parc des Eaux Vives, from which begins several canals related to the Rhine. There is the Grand Canal d'Alsace, and the Canal de Huningue, and somewhere in there is the Canal du Rhone au Rhin. That is the one we eventually followed to Mulhouse, and which we will be following tomorrow.

All through this area there was no question of any contention with vehicle traffic. It was all canal side finely packed gravel, with swans and ducks, and even muskrats for company. Swans are so photogenic, I usually take too many pictures of them on a tour. But we did snap just one more today, so nicely was the swan done up in its "Swan Lake" posture.

In France there are alwasys fishermen by the canals. We have almost never seen a fish caught.

The government must share the delusion. Here is their list of what is in the canal.

A very tame seeming muskrat. The area is known here as the Little Camargue (reference to the large area wher the Rhome meets the Med)

The cycling went smoothly, until near Mulhouse we came to a bridge where construction had blocked any pedestrian/bike access so that we would have had to cycle with the cars. There was little traffic and the bridge was short, but Dodie balked. So we went a few blocks away and found a high pedestrian overpass. We unloaded the packs to carry over this steep obstacle. No problem, I always say, obstacles just make us stronger.

On the other side, a man stopped to ask our opinion as to whether is would be worth it, weather wise, to take a special Air France deal on a flight to Montreal in November. We gave a well considered answer, but mostly were thinking how great it was that we could understand everything the man said. This was not only because he was speaking French and not German or Italian, but also because we were in France. In Quebec we usually have lots of trouble understanding what people are saying.

Luggage getting ferried over the pedestrian crossing

Steve builds strength by schlepping bikes!

The man gave us some tips on finding the one camping in Mulhouse, and after some casting about we did find it. So now for 14 euros we are set for the night. We also ordered a baguette, two croissants, and two pains au chocolat for the morning. All told that was 5 euros. So for 19 euros we have accommodation, breakfast, and a start at lunch. We will be in good shape tomorrow to start the long trek to the Atlantic.

We followed the canal to the camping. At this point, it is the actual Rhone to Rhine canal

Today's ride: 46 km (29 miles)
Total: 2,806 km (1,743 miles)

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