Mainz to Bacharach
The most beautiful and mysterious town in the world (Victor Hugo, on Bacharach)
Left or right? That’s the dilemma of the morning. Left means certainty. Right means uncertainty and possible delay.
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Worms to Mainz
And just like that … there’s grapes again!
With pleasure, we turn our bikes away from Worms, heading generally north as we follow the Rhein’s meanderings, slightly east, slightly west. A river never runs straight – unless perhaps humans have had something to do with it!
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Speyer to Worms
Industry makes the world go round, but it sure is ugly!
It seems I have learnt to sleep properly. This morning when I notice the church clock chiming, calling people to early Mass, Neil tells me it went all night, every quarter hour. How did I sleep through that? He also tells me that he was awake to hear the 2:45am chime, but told himself to be asleep before 3am. And he was. How does he do that?
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Karlsruhe to Speyer
Do NOT pay the ferry man!
Neil survives the night. My Garmin does not, or rather it remains in its endless boot loop, and there is no fix or reassuring message from Garmin Australia. It seems today I will be following Neil around, rudderless, so to speak.
While he is feeling a lot better today, it has been a somewhat torrid night for Neil, and he doesn’t shut down my idea that we could take the train to Speyer if he’s not up to riding. The weather is looking pretty rubbish today as well, so it could be a bit of a chore riding anyway.
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Drusenheim to Karlsrhue
Watch out for Allergen 14 and unwanted software updates
“What are you doing in Karlsruhe?”
We are actually wondering that ourselves, even before our lovely waitress at dinner poses the question.
The answer is pretty simple: it’s because Karlsruhe is about 60km from Drusenheim, and that’s a reasonable day’s ride for us.
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Strasbourg to Drusenheim
Rain Runners
What is it they say about the best laid plans? Something about them going awry.
This morning we’d planned to leave our bikes and luggage at our hotel and to go out and explore for a while before taking our short(ish) ride to Drusenheim. Over breakfast Neil announces a thunderstorm is approaching and after checking the weather the best we can, we decide, reluctantly, to just get on our bikes and go!
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Sélestat to Strasbourg
Where we have to watch out for marauding tractors now as well!
Sélestat is quite a different place when we emerge with our bikes this morning. There is a market on – a bit like the Heathcote market, but on steroids – and people are everywhere. I don’t know who would think of buying a bed at a street market, but you can here in Sélestat! It would be a challenge to carry home on a bike.
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Colmar to Sélestat
Sometimes the short days take the longest time
We are still without a functional pump, and, being Monday, there’s no hope of there being a local bike shop open. I have a bright idea, and look up Decathlon. Decathlon is the Bunnings of sports gear, there is a store in Colmar – and it is open!
We ride a curly, confusing and frustrating route out of the centre of Colmar. I am a huge fan of the Hoddle grid, with its ordered, rectangular layouts. Curly random streets do my head in, and I would welcome a Hoddle redesign on some of these European villages to make getting around easier. But, I guess order would remove the charm of the chaos.
…Eurovelo 15 – in one post
We’re riding from Oberalppass in the Swiss Alps, to Hoek van Holland (and then on to Amsterdam) in the Netherlands.
Along the way we’ll visit Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Germany, France and the Netherlands.
Check below the map for links to posts about the trip.
The map below shows our whole journey. On this trip so far we have:
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Ottmarsheim to Colmar
Two is not quite enough!
One of Ottmarsheim’s main tourist claims to fame is the Abbiatale Saints Pierre et Paul, a 1,000 year old, octagonal-shaped church, which has had its challenges over the course of its lifetime, but has undergone significant restoration. It is quite unlike any church I have seen, and has some sections of original (or maybe early frescoes) still visible.
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