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| Euro velo signage. Budapest will have to wait for another trip |
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The town of Clerval, where we had a fine lunch,
the Plat du Jour with 3 courses for €13 |
A couple of things happened as we approached the city of Mullhouse in the French region of Alsace on Sunday. Summer suddenly arrived, and we started to see an awful lot of storks in the fields! In one hay stubble field I counted six all in a group.
So it made a lot of sense later on when we discovered the stork is the emblem of this area and saw souvenir stalls selling loads of little stuffed toy storks. Regarding the weather, we’ve gone from down jackets and seeking out sunny spots to dry our tent in the mornings, to 30C and having to make sure to stay hydrated. No complaints! It just happened very suddenly.
We could have pushed on and crossed the border to Switzerland, but as Mullhouse is a good train hub, we decided to take a rest day there and catch the train to Colmar and Strasbourg, two places I'd been hoping to visit.
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| Little Venice in Colmar |
Colmar is almost like a miniature Strasbourg, with its canals and timber-fronted houses. It was the most tourist-thronged place we’ve been to thus far, but still very beautiful. The hills that surround it are part of the renowned Alsace wine region. Colmar has a strong connection with Bartholdi, the sculptor who designed the Statue of Liberty, and many of his prices of work adorn fountains and buildings around the town.
We hopped on another train to continue to Strasbourg, but it was the wrong train! It took us back to Mullhouse, a twenty minute ride, but we didn't mind. The relaxing downtime was appreciated! Then we got on the right train and in Strasbourg we had a wonderful afternoon in spite of a period of very heavy rain.
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| Notre Dame Cathedral, Strasbourg |
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| Later when the sun returned, drinks with spatzel |
We've seen many magnificent churches already, but the Notre Dame Cathedral here just blew us away.
On Tuesday morning we set off to do the final 40km of our section of Euro velo 6 to the Swiss city of Basel. We continued to follow the Rhine au Rhone canal, and eventually we got to see where it connected up to the river Rhine. It was hard to tell where the real Rhine began as there is a complex system of canals, but by the time we got to Basel, the Rhine was a wide, swiftly-flowing impressive waterway.
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Crossing the Rhine on the Trois Pays footbridge,
momentarily entering Germany before Switzerland.
No border markings as such, but the border runs down the middle of the river. |
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A mini celebration in Germany having completed
the traverse of France |
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| EV6 followed the banks of the Rhine on the approach to Basel |
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| Frank in front of one of Basel's beautiful churches |
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| Daily market in front of Basel's city hall |
At this point we had to make some decisions about our route and timing across Switzerland. Wanting to leave lots of time for more southern French countryside, we decided to take a train to Andermatt and connect up with the source of the river Rhone and its cycling route from the Swiss alps back into France. At the Banhoff, a nice english-speaking lady sorted us and our beasts of burden out with appropriate train tickets and we were set for a very scenic ride towards the Alps and a new section of biking.
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| Our little hotel in Basel right by one of the old city gates |
We wondered how it would work getting the bikes on the train, but it was all very civilized, with elevators to get to the platforms, and a special place to hang the unloaded bikes inside the carriage. As I write this, we’re nervous about the two changes we have to make in Erstfeld and Goschenen. They will require platform changes, and for the second change, we have only about four minutes! If there are stairs to negotiate, we’re screwed! We will try to strategize this manoeuvre with the bikes, panniers and Frank’s tent pack, and at least we can practice on change 1 and perfect it by the second one!
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| Bikes on train 1 |
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| Much easier loading on train 2 |
Several hours later:
Well, the train changes went perfectly. We figured we would take down the bikes from their strung-up position just before arrival at the station and load on the panniers. There was a big step down on the first one but as a duo, we managed to get each loaded bike down very well, and the platform change there was a breeze. The second train had a platform-level sliding door so that was much easier to get into. We didn't have to unload the bikes for that one.
Change 2 also turned out well. We had to go to another platform, but everything was connected on the same level, and we got it done in the 2 minutes! Great relief.
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| A few of the views from the train |
The last train, from Goshenen to Andermatt was a new experience altogether. It was one of those special cog railway lines I've seen in Switzerland before, but never got to travel on. The mountain scenery from it was dramatic, but I couldn't get any pictures as I had both hands on my brakes to prevent the bike from sliding back down the carriage! (We were standing with our bikes as it was only a 10 minute ride).
We are now set up in Andermatt campground with snow-covered peaks around us, as if we were transported to another planet compared this morning's urban scene. It was sunny when we arrived, but now the thunder rolls and the lightening fills the sky as we sip our wine in the relative comfort of the tent.
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| Campground in Andermatt 1447m |
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