Hello all! Day 13 was a solid day of good riding and pretty views and we somehow managed to avoid the rain again. The hardest part of the day was simply trying to get out of Basel and into France. We woke up and were trying to get out the house quickly to miss the big rain storms. When we went to say goodbye to our host we found him sitting in an office chair really embracing his nudist vegetarian beliefs... So that was a way to start the morning and give encouragement to get out of Basel. We rode down to the Rhine river where we were told a bicycle path would take us right up into France with no issue. Riding along the river was going great, we crossed a little sign saying we crossed the border and then about 100 feet later we found a closed and locked gate. So we turned around back into Switzerland and found what looked to be a path around and went up that. A few hundred feet down we found another closed and locked gate... It was starting to look like France was closed. On the way back down this path a group of firemen we had passed about three times while trying to get into France, stopped and gave us direction on how to actually cross into France. Their directions led us to trying to get into a secure office building, where we were promptly stopped and told to leave. At this point we just found a major road heading north and followed that, and finally we made it into France with no closed and locked gates stopping us.
After crossing into France, we had a nice big breakfast at a little cafe and then started on our way to Colmar. We decided to follow a bicycle path that followed a bit of a canal that then led to a nice paved bike path. This made for really easy and quick riding. The route was really nice too as it would duck into a town briefly then go through some fields then duck back into a town. The path of this bike route was immaculate which was great! Bikes only and really smooth and straight. The route was also really well marked, maybe not as good as Switzerland but still really useable (and infinitely better than Italy).
We made great time and made it to a little town called Neuf-Brisach. This was a neat fortress looking town so we rode to it, though it was a bit our of the way. Unfortunately the fortifications were mostly overgrown so it was hard to really see the fortress aspect of it. That being said though the town was pretty neat so we stopped for a cappuccino and a pastry. At the cafe we ran into a nice American couple from New York on their honeymoon, doing a similar trip to us (only in a car). It was especially nice to relax and chat with them for a while before heading on to Colmar. The ride to Colmar was pretty plain sailing along a small country highway. We flew through Colmar because it must have been rush hour and the traffic was crazy. We did stop for a picture of the Statue of Liberty though:
We are staying in a little town just west of Colmar in the hills called Turckheim. It is a very quaint town surrounded by vineyards. For dinner we went to a restaurant in town that was very satisfying. We had escargot to start, then steak and frites (like a steak, a real steak, an actually pure source of protein), and finished with some ice cream and cappuccinos. All in all we had a great day of riding and a lovely stay here in Turckheim. On Day 14 (our fortnight marker) we are riding to Strasbourg, a ride of around 50 miles. Anyway that is all I have for now so best wishes and until next time.
Surroundings of Turckheim
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