Au Revoir France

To Karlsruhe, Germany -- 54.2 miles, 12.5 mph, 500 ft

Hello All, Meg here.  It was another nice morning for riding a bike. We’ve been very lucky in our weather -- thank you Mother Nature.  Seeing as we’d had our leisurely ride yesterday, we were back to business today and had our sights on Karlsuhe, Germany - 54 miles up the road.  With spoons at the ready, we enjoyed the pastries from the campground, as well as our own provisions.  

It was lovely riding, again.  I feel like we’re a stuck record - but it really is beautiful countryside.  We went along the Rhine, in and out of farmland, and in and out of towns.  We decided to eat a little early as we were all feeling hungry.  We usually like to hold off on lunch until we are at least halfway, but sometimes a nice lunch spot presents itself, and we take advantage of it, which was the case for today.  

After lunch, it was the same scenery as before, along the Rhine and in and out of farmlands and always flat, flat, flat bike paths.  The paths are usually paved and there are a lot of them.  Thank goodness for Komoot, as it seems to keep us on course, on paths, and off the main roads.   We were able to ride side-by-side, which we do very little of, typically.   The kids talked about MineCraft or their KinderEgg adventures while Dean and I talked about the route and where we’re headed.

 

After what seemed a considerable amount of pedaling, we came to a dead-end at the Rhine’s edge. There was a Ferry to board and this time, we’d be leaving France for the final time by bike.  Au revoir to beautiful France.  (We’ll be back again before leaving Europe as we had promised Dex we’d go to Paris.)  

Once we crossed into Germany, we knew we had about an hour's worth of riding to get to our first hostel stay of the trip.  With an hour to go, I was ready to get to our home base….unfortunately, Dean was feeling a little hungry but failed to mention that to me.  A hungry Dean translates to a grumpy Dean.  It doesn’t help any that once we are in towns, MIss Cranky seems to become a bit more boisterous and there seems to be an awful lot of turning around, (“You have left the tour, take a look at the map.”)  We all felt relieved when, around 5pm, we saw the sign for A&O Hostel.

We celebrated our arrival by eating our entire roll of cookies, polishing off several drinks and enjoying ice cream treats.  After checking out our room and Dex and Kylie doing some homework, we made our way for a quick dinner near the hostel.  This was in order to get back to the lobby and watch the Germany vs. France semi-final round of the Euro 2016.  While Germany seemed to have better control of the ball, and more time with it, Les Bleus were more of a threat with every charge and scored quickly.  It was an exciting game, though it didn’t go Germany’s way.  The final match will be France vs. Portugal on Sunday. Not sure where we’ll be, but we’ll be watching!