Day 14 - Karlsruhe to Strasbourg

After a sad farewell we left Karlsruhe at about 10am, we cycled via Etlingen to Rastatt along a good and fast cycle track, soon after Rastatt we crossed the Rhine and entered France for the first time on our trip. Rachel was bombing along, often in front, partly due to the fact that she was the beneficiary of us reducing our panniers from 9 to 8. The Rhine path in France was very good, but in a dip outside of the flood defence, so providing no views, however we made great progress. Kate had a front puncture, the bike she has borrowed has green slime in the inner tubes that is supposed to self fix punctures, so I tried pumping it up again to see if it would work, the only positive result was that Kate and anyone cycling next to her got covered with the stuff!

It was a very hot day again with temperatures in the mid 30s.

I have cycled in France and it always seems that the place is empty and the shops are closed. Obviously I avoid the main towns, but the smaller towns and villages seem deserted. Especially when thirsty there is nowhere to buy water. We had our lunch ( sandwiches courtesy of Ali, thank you ) on the edge of the road, but we had committed the basic crime of running out of water, we crawled through a couple of villages until our luck changed in Gambshein where a boulangerie was open during lunch time. We bought fanta and coke and got our water bottles refilled.

We decided to visit the fish ladders at Gambshein, which meant retracing our route. These ladders are 290m long and raise by 10m and are only 7 years old. They allow for migratory fish in particular salmon, there seems to be a great drive to allow Salmon to return to the streams they have not visited in years. You can view the fish through a glass wall underground, however we did not see any, wrong time of the year. But where we were was lovely and cool and watching the water go by put all of us, except Rachel to sleep.

Returning to Gambshein village Chris noticed the temperature on a sign outside a shop was saying 46C, he was just saying "forty six degrees!" when he hit a kerb and just managed to jump off his bike before the crash. so far the crash count is kate 3, chris 2, sarah & paula 1, rachel and brendan 0.

There were more good cycle paths to Strasbourg, and we arrived before 7pm and found our hotel easily.  For once we had pre booked the hotel. Strasbourg is a lovely place, we had a good wander around, a Chinese meal and were then entertained by a light and music show on the walls of the Notre Dame Cathedral.

Even though we are in France, everyone assumes we are Dutch or German. The number of comments we have had from people thinking we are Dutch is incredible!

Today's stats
Distance 99.22k
Time 4.49.05
Average speed 20.5h
Climb 237m
Total distance 1137k