Distance cycled: 105km from French border on top of a farmers field overlooking the countryside to 15km southwest of Karlsruhe
Average speed: 19 km/h
Moving time: 5h32m
Total distance: 2694km
Border X'ings: 10
Money spent: €8
View 11oct12 in a larger map
Cycling around the northern tip of France was a complete shit show, the route I downloaded tried to take me through impossible to cycle walking paths and so I had to take the long ways around; thankfully I happen to make the right decisions when I had the choice happy to have taken the lesser of two evils. The scenery was nice though albeit under the cold overcast sky that lingered above all day.
I would have crossed between Germany and France at least a couple of times as I followed the very nice bicycle path alongside the river Rhien that divides Germany from France, well at least this part of the country. I was increadibly happy stumbling onto this converted train track trail because as it use to be for trains it was more or less pretty flat through the mountains meaning I could pick up my average speed and enjoy the scenery as I passed through many little pretty Germany and French towns.
One town worth mentioning named Wissembourg on the french side of the Rhien was simply beautiful, I would have liked to stick around and enjoy the sights but I had a bit of a time constraint today because I was suppose to meet Nadine who, as I mentioned before met her when catching up with a friend in London a couple of months ago, she was keen (at first) to put me up with a place to stay. Unfortunately due to lack of communication on her behalf I pushed myself to get to Karlsruhe for no reason because right now I'm in my tent 15km from the city. I really do need a shower it's been 5 days or so...
I can't get too annoyed with her just yet, I'm sure she has a good excuse, its just that I could have taken a different route towards Bern in Switzerland saving a few hundred kilometers avoiding Karlsruhe.
One thing irritated me today and that was when I was looking for Internet in a substantially large town I found myself trying to open locked doors; it was the early afternoon on a thursday and everything was f$cking shut, the library, all the Internet cafés and I couldn't even go to the McDonald's because I need a German cell phone for them to send me a code to use the wifi. I was literally shouting at closed doors, not that I am desperate to get on Facebook or check my email but for me to get the route downloaded to my GPS needed to get to Karlsruhe.
Camping with a view (behind)
enter Germany again
Very nice cycle path towards Karlsruhe
Wissembourg, a quaint little French town close to the German border
Buying some cider…or something similar. tasty stuff!
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