Paris > Villey-le-Sec [Tue 12 Jun | 207.85 km]
Paris >-by train-> Epernay > Vitry-le-Francois > Andernay >Bar-le-Duc > Naix-aux-Forges > Void > Sorcy-St-Martin > Toul > Villey-le-Sec
Villey-le-Sec > Allmannsweier [Wed 13 Jun | 225.30 km]
Villey-le-Sec > Richardsmenil > Varangeville > Lagarde > Bourdonnay > Heming > Hesse> Sarrebourg > Lutzelbourg > Saverne > Willgottheim > Strasbourg > Krafft > Allmannsweier
Allmannsweier > Freiburg [Thu 14 Jun | 76.13 km]
Allmannsweier >-Ortenauweg-> >-Breisgau-Radwanderweg-> Freiburg
Freiburg > Zurich [Fri 15 Jun | 159.80 km]
Freiburg >-Markgrafter-Radwanderweg-> Schleingen >-Rhine-Radweg-> Basel >-Oberrhein-Kaiserstuhl-Radweg-> >-Hochrhein-Hotzenwald-Weg-> Koblenz >-by train-> Zurich
The train from Paris to Epernay was my first "cheat" - one hour later and im 200km outside Paris, beyond the supposed hassle of riding a bike out of the city. Was a good experience, though - nice and easy to travel with the bike, in contrast to the experiences some friends have had with trains in France - special bike car, with room for 6 bikes, and no extra charge to drag mine aboard. I don't doubt that things are different with longer-distance trains, though. From the train I watched as chateaus, farmhouses and open fields rolled by, all in the light of a bright sunny day - perfect for riding.
Started out through the somewhat rolling hills of the champagne region, keeping the speed high. The air was filled with martins and swallows, and a few French jets out on manouvers - I think the French have this thing about flying their jets at full throttle as if to say "YEAH! We're FRENCH! We've got JETS! We're a SUPERPOWER!". They're louder here than anywhere I've been in Europe, especially compared to the Swiss, who fly their jets as if they don't want to disturb the cows.
Entered the town of Bar-le-Duc, rounded a corner and lo and behold! The Michaux memorial! That was a stroke of luck - I'd known it was out here somewhere, but I'd completely forgotten to look up the info before i left Paris. Certainly a pleasant surprise. Farther down the road, made one of my best routing decisions so far this trip in taking the D29 from Naix-aux-Forges to Void - hardly any cars, and a nice ride through scenic farmland. I just wish the village fountains had drinkable water, but I think that'll have to wait for Switzerland.
The "plan" was to make Nancy this first day out, but I ended up stopping for the night in Villey-le-Sec, at a campsite at the bottom of a huge hill, which I was worried about having to start my day climbing up, but it turned out that there was a bike path just across the Moselle, which led out the direction i was going. That was a relief. The black kites flying around above the river only serve to make me kick myself for leaving my bird book at home. I was concerned about carrying too much, butin all realisticness, a bird book wouldn't have made a difference. The campsite was packed to the gills with Dutch vacationers in their caravans, but the tent camping area was vacant except for one other tent. I think the Dutch are far and away the camping-est people in Europe. Whereever you go, there's bound to be a good proportion of Dutch people in your campsite. The lack of toilet paper and the timed showers (% minutes here, but i encountered times as low as 2 minutes - no washing my hair like that!) takes some getting used to, but the rest of the facilities at European campgrounds more than makes up for it.
I was planning to ride the entire distance to Freiburg the next day, but that plan was due to backfire, and backfire horribly. Took off early in the morning, and stopped about 60km into the ride for my usual late morning snack. Met my first cycletourist of the French leg, a German who was nearing the end of his trip from the coast of France to his home near Strasbourg. It's taken him a week to get this far, but he's definitely travelling slower than I am. Riding past the little town of Arzviller, passed a tiny little one-tent circus, which i could hear echoing through the hills for a long time as I rode away from town - yet another argument for the minidisc recorder. Passed an older Scottish man cycling along a little further down the road - he'd ridden from Normandy in slacks and a dress shirt, but we had a bonding moment when it came to Carradice bags.
From Arzviller, a large obstacle stood in the way of my route to Saverne and on to Strasbourg - mountains. Well, not huge ones, by any stretch of the imagination, but there they were. Fortunately, there was an easy answer - the Canal du Marne au Rhin. A beautiful bike path runs the entire length of the canal through the mountains, and after the climb from Arzviller to St. Louis, and the fast drop from there down to the canal, its a slight downhill slope the entire way. A pleasant surprise indeed, and much nicer than riding along the shoulder of the major D38, which is what i was expecting, as the IGN maps don't show any bike paths. The whole route down the valley was right along the canal, through beautiful forests, and dumps you out right in Saverne.
The ride from Saverne to Strasbourg was mostly downhill through rolling hills of the Alsace region. Traffic slowly got sparser and sparser as i got farther away from Saverne, and then grew again once Strasbourg came into view. Strasbourg i didn't have much time for, as i was still deluded that I could make Freiburg that night. (despite it being, oh, about 100km away, and it being about 8pm, and me having ridden close to 200km already...) Friends had always told me that the city was full of prostitutes, and sadly enough, this is the only real major thing i remember about Strasbourg, because I was in such a hurry to get on my way. I'll have to go back sometime to give it a more fair viewing.
The Canal du Rhone au Rhin is a lifesaver heading out of Strasbourg - straight and with a paved cycle track. Of course, as soon as I'd passed up the campground on the edge of Strasbourg and started my run for Freiburg, the rain started to move in, and move in fast. As it grew darker and wetter, I edged over to the Rhine itself, and found my crossing over into Germany in complete darkness, and the beginnings of a lightning storm. Not good, especially when you're riding along a dike in the middle of the Rhine, with telephone wires running overhead the entire way - But with nowhere else to go. I was soaked to the bone (thanks to a Roach jacket that I mistakenly beleived i could waterproof), and had no idea where i was going to stop for the night, as 10pm came and went.
Tried to find a hotel in Vonneweier, but with no luck except finding out that there was a hotel somewhere up the road in Allmannsweier, so back out into the rain I went. After some searching about in the dark, I finally found the place, and walked up to reception, dripping, at about 10:50. They shut their doors for the night at 11pm. Lucky me. Got myself a room, as exorbitant prices compared to what I'd been paying for campgrounds - 98 DM (about $40 at that point), but that room was a palace as far as i was concerned right then. Hot shower, nice bed, places to hang up all my wet clothes, and breakfast in the morning. The receptionist was even nice enough to make me some quick open-face sandwiches, since the restaurant was closed.
Took full advantage of the buffet breakfast the next morning, stuffing myself to the gills to fill the void left by the previous days 225+km insanity. It was to be my longest day in the saddle the entire trip. I was roughly 70km from Freiburg now, so I didn't really need to rush today at all. Left lateish, and just casually rolled on my way. The ADFC bike maps i had looked good, until I discovered (about a month later, when i was back in Freiburg) that the particular one i was holding was outdated, and didnt show more than a few roads. But they did cover the bike routes in detail, and marked grades and whatnot, which was points in their favor despite their large scale. The bike paths through this region of Germany are pretty well-marked, practically guiding you along, correcting your mistakes somehow. Sections of the Ortenauweg and the Breisgau-Radwandernweg took me to Freiburg, and the latter was especially scenic, running a good bit of the time on smooth dirt tracks through the forests of the area - a welcome change to cycling beside roads, that's for sure.
Made Freiburg a little after noon, and called Achim, who turned out to be down in Italy for the weekend, so I headed over to his place to wait for housemates to drop by so I could leave my stuff there and go get food. Unbeknownst to me, it was a Feuertag - Frohleichnam, I was to discover later - the town is covered with birch branches and the yellow/white Catholic banners. Wandered around the Altstadt for a while, and then surrendered to overpriced pasta in the shadow of the Munster, because I hadn't eaten since the hotel that morning. When that was done, took a climb up the tower of the Munster to take in the always-impressive view of the region it provides. Freiburg is a beautiful university town, and the old town center was miraculous spared during WWII - to anyone who hasn't been here before, I highly recommend a visit.
Spotted a big poster inside the Munster for the organ concert series, which wasnt happenning this particular night, but there was a concert scheduled for 2 days after I was planning to leave Freiburg for Vienna later on in my tour, and it began to look like I might have to modify those plans for the chance to hear the sheer uniqueness of the cathedral's 4 organs which can all be played from one console.
As I had ridden into town, I'd noticed once again the ever-expanding rail lines around the city - I seem to remember them constructing more routes when I was here last, 2 years earlier. If you're a fan of bikes and light rail, Freiburg is your place - there's ample resources for both here, and they're constantly making more bike routes and tram tracks. My kind of city that spends so much time on the 2 most efficient modes of public transport.
Gunnar and Peter, Achim's housemates, got home, and I was reassured that I was more than welcome, despite Achim's absence, and the lack of notice that I was on my way. I remembered this house from the last trip to Freiburg - it's older, 17th century, I think, with low ceilings and doors, and walls and floors that are never quite straight. It simply has character beyond compare. Great house. I wanted to stay longer, but I knew I'd be back in about a month, after my time in Switzerland. Went out for that ever-popular Freiburg snack, ice cream, which is cheap here, and damn good.
Morning came, and with it, more nice riding weather, as I started off on my way to Zurich on the familiar route down to Basel, and then along the Rhine to Koblenz. The paths start out running through small gardens on the outskirts of the city, and rapidly switch to running through the expansive vineyards of the Rhine region. Got fouled up on my routing through Bad Krozingen - discovered that the major failing of the ADFC maps (despite the age of the particular one I was using) is that they don't label the roads with their numbers, theres just lines all over the place, and they rely on the presence of the (nearly-ever present) bike route signs. Even when the signs are everywhere, I still like to have road numbers, just in case. Switched over to the path along the Rhine itself, which makes things completely obvious - It's a dirt track, but for the heavy use it must receive, it's practically paved.
Basel, my halfway point, came into view, and I knew I was pretty much home free from this point. Paused to spend my Swiss kleingeld on an ice cream by the river in the center of town, and then hopped back on the bike again to pop back into Germany until i crossed the Rhine at Waldhut to follow the Aare towards Zurich. Somewhere along the route between here and Koblenz, I lost the bolt which attached the structure of my nitto uplift (which supports my carradice bag) to the seatpost clamp (I had already begun to have problems with it loosening, and it completely stripped out its threads this time), making it virtually useless, flopping around behind me. Fortunately, my friends Binda and Christophe came to my rescue, and strapped the uplift to my seatpost for the duration of the ride on to the Swiss border.
By this point, it'd been raining off and on since about 15kn outside Basel, and between that and the bag issues, I took a quick look at the train schedules and fares from Koblenz to Zurich, and decided that 30 sFr wasn't all that bad, considering I was running a little late as it was. The toestrap jury-rig to the clamp probably would've held out until Zurich, but I didn't feel like risking it. Swiss trains do indeed run like clockwork, as I'd always been told, and their bike facilities are without parallel - I had to buy 2 tickets, one for the bike and one for myself, but this was a minor expenditure, considering that the Hauptbahnhof in Zurich, where I was headed, was basically right across the Limmat from Valerie and Marco's place, where I would be staying. Even on the second level of the train I was in post-transfer, this was likely the quietest and least shaky train I'd ever been in - definitely a good introduction to the Swiss rail system!
Arrival in Zurich came rapidly, and I emerged from the HB to - yes, you guessed it - more rain. Fortunately the house, as i mentioned before, was right across the river, so off I went.
Maps used:
IGN "top 100" #s 9, 22, 10, 23, 11, 12, 31 (France)
ADFC Radtourenkarte 1:150000 # 24 (Germany)
Bundesamt fur Landestopographie 1:100000 #102 (Switzerland)
On to Zurich