On the Road Again

To Strasbourg, France -- 37.2 miles, 13.2 mph, 300 ft

Today was the first day back on the bikes after four days of lounging around at the Hofers'. We intentionally made it a short day to ease back into things and allow us to take our time in the morning. Of course, that meant it was 11:30 when we lumbered away from our good friends and our home away from home.

Theo, Axel, Ida, and Marion

The good news was that it was another glorious day and, from the profile, the riding would be smooth and easy. Halfway to Strasbourg, we stopped by a small lake for lunch. Before leaving this morning, Axel and Marion had presented us each with our very own baby spoon and a few bags of Haribo candy. Ah, life was good, and we would surely conquer the world, spoons in hand.

The riding was almost exclusively on quiet paths giving us plenty of time to chat and look around. Shortly after lunch, the road dead-ended into the Rhine -- our first ferry ride would take us, once again, back into France.

As we’ve now been in Europe for over six weeks, we were discussing some of the differences we’ve noticed. Based on our tiny sliver of Europe and our unscientific observations:

• Smaller houses, kitchens, cars, and yards.

• Smaller food containers -- for  milk, juice, food servings in general.

• Soccer, soccer, soccer

• Coffee and wine: good, ubiquitous, and cheap.

• Fresh bread and pastries almost everywhere.

• Small drinks (sodas)...no ice and no refills!

• Shared common spaces -- restaurants, parks, plazas.

• Smaller towns.

• History. Towns hundreds of years old. Cobblestone streets. Public fountains.

• Less obsession with warnings and legal restrictions (less fear of being sued).

• Smaller stores and shops. Fewer big chains. No Walmart.

• Incredible network of small, accessible roads, trails and footpaths.

• Incredibly convenient and prevalent public transportation -- trains, trams, buses.

• Much greater emphasis on walking, hiking, biking.

• Lots more smoking … outside at restaurants -- grrr.

We coasted into the Indigo campground around 4:00 and set up the tent in a grassy area among the other vans and tent campers. Once again, the French know how to do camping right. There were awesome facilities for showers, washing and relaxing. We caught up on homework in the common room and played a couple games of pool while watching Le Tour on TV.

For dinner, Dex found a small Kabab restaurant (Grill Istanbul) in town, which gave us the perfect opportunity to stretch our legs and see the beautiful, old town streets of Strasburg.