Tried to do a bunch of planning-type stuff, cycled a fair amount, camped in a field.
These pictures and many more are found here: 20090720_Budapest Zurich Basel Strasbourg Freiburg and perhaps someday will be correlated with the GPS data Frances took.
We stayed in the YMCA hostel the night before, Frances in the all-women's dorm, which usually afords her few neighbors and a nice, clean environment away from stinky boys. Sounds like I got the better deal this time.
We got a rather late start out of Basel (3:00 pm?), after trying to find EuroVelo route 5 or make some other route or plan, trying to buy a train ticket for Frances to Paris on-line but Frances's card wouldn't work, trying to deal with France's bank but no communication method revealed itself, and trying (and succeeding at this one!) to buy Frances a train ticket to Paris with my card *at the train station*.
We cycled pretty far, but not as far as we wanted...
At one point, I had a grasshopper friend on my leg. He stayed for about 5 minutes before hopping away. Hope he was OK! This was right about the time we cycled 12 miles and I didn't touch the ground that whole time. Whoa. I guess that doesn't mean much to hardcore cyclists... but it's pretty cool for me!
Mmmm, cheap (But good!) brie and bread. Fuel for transport... I again drank a liter of juice much faster than any person should. After a quick rest, we got back on the road!
But not before noticing the ridiculous pile of recycling, much of which wine bottles, outside this French grocery store.
Crossing the Rhein (Rhin, Rhine, however you want to spell it), we entered Germany. We'd cross back into France not long after, though, to make time on the larger highway.
Caravaners abound on these little river-side paths. What a nice day for a picnic...
Also: Bike lanes = awesome. So nice to not be in traffic!
Today was a nice steady downhill, mostly following the river.
A huge hydroelectric plant built on the river between France and Germany, right after World War II. ...With American dollars, Frances points out.
We decided to camp (first time this trip! woo!), so I recommended stopping about a half hour before sun-down (because I had never set up this tent before). It turns out this is the easiest tent to set up that I've ever seen. No sleeves to push poles through, and all the poles are permanently attached to each other. Snap the three poles in at the corners and top of the tent, attach the tent's hooks to the poles, put the rain-fly over the whole thing, do four velcro straps, four more corner-attachments to poles, two stakes, and it's done, no need for two people, even. Go REI tents! Too bad we didn't have a bottle of wine or some liquor... and too bad there were mosquitos, or I'd have slept outside, making Frances cooler and happier. Oh well. Woke up with a slug and a spider in my bag. Yay nature! :-/
We stayed in the YMCA hostel the night before, Frances in the all-women's dorm, which usually afords her few neighbors and a nice, clean environment away from stinky boys. Sounds like I got the better deal this time.
We got a rather late start out of Basel (3:00 pm?), after trying to find EuroVelo route 5 or make some other route or plan, trying to buy a train ticket for Frances to Paris on-line but Frances's card wouldn't work, trying to deal with France's bank but no communication method revealed itself, and trying (and succeeding at this one!) to buy Frances a train ticket to Paris with my card *at the train station*.
We cycled pretty far, but not as far as we wanted...
At one point, I had a grasshopper friend on my leg. He stayed for about 5 minutes before hopping away. Hope he was OK! This was right about the time we cycled 12 miles and I didn't touch the ground that whole time. Whoa. I guess that doesn't mean much to hardcore cyclists... but it's pretty cool for me!
Mmmm, cheap (But good!) brie and bread. Fuel for transport... I again drank a liter of juice much faster than any person should. After a quick rest, we got back on the road!
But not before noticing the ridiculous pile of recycling, much of which wine bottles, outside this French grocery store.
Crossing the Rhein (Rhin, Rhine, however you want to spell it), we entered Germany. We'd cross back into France not long after, though, to make time on the larger highway.
Caravaners abound on these little river-side paths. What a nice day for a picnic...
Also: Bike lanes = awesome. So nice to not be in traffic!
Today was a nice steady downhill, mostly following the river.
A huge hydroelectric plant built on the river between France and Germany, right after World War II. ...With American dollars, Frances points out.
We decided to camp (first time this trip! woo!), so I recommended stopping about a half hour before sun-down (because I had never set up this tent before). It turns out this is the easiest tent to set up that I've ever seen. No sleeves to push poles through, and all the poles are permanently attached to each other. Snap the three poles in at the corners and top of the tent, attach the tent's hooks to the poles, put the rain-fly over the whole thing, do four velcro straps, four more corner-attachments to poles, two stakes, and it's done, no need for two people, even. Go REI tents! Too bad we didn't have a bottle of wine or some liquor... and too bad there were mosquitos, or I'd have slept outside, making Frances cooler and happier. Oh well. Woke up with a slug and a spider in my bag. Yay nature! :-/
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