Europe 2023 from Frankfurt
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Intended Route - Rhonda & Brent
This involves taking a train to Freiburg to start our journey. Depending on the weather, we may start someplace else. The route from Sarbrucken on should be stable though.
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Intended Route - Rhonda, Brent, Laura
This route goes over Oberalppass. We might take a route around that. At the end of the trip, we might go directly to Munich, or if we have time, we might go west to Fussen first then Munich.
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Our usual packing configuration - cardboard bike boxes from a bike store, and LARGE moving boxes. The U-Haul one is the exact dimensions to be the maximum size an airline will take before it is deemed "oversize". We have one ATUVOS tracker stashed inside each box - let's hope everything arrives, as planned, in Frankfurt tomorrow morning. |
We were up and ready early this morning. Tannis showed up early to drive us. The boxes went easily into her truck. Traffic and road conditions were fine. Our check-in agent was a woman from Berlin who was very excited about our trip. The oversized luggage woman was crabby as usual but very fast and efficient.
We were checked in and ready for security by 9:30am, which was when I expected we would just be arriving at the airport. We now have a long wait for our plane!!
The ATUVOS trackers are working fine so far but the one for my bike started reporting low battery just as we got here. Dang it. |
Our ATUVOS trackers worked fine to track our luggage from Edmonton to Toronto and then to Frankfurt.
Our luggage all arrived, and with no damage to speak of.
At the Frankfurt airport we wanted to get a taxi to our Airbnb since it was cold and drizzly and that would be the easiest way to get all of the stuff over there. Only small taxis were around but Brent asked the traffic director guy who phoned Großraum Taxi (+49 171 6512652) for us. The taxi arrived within five minutes and we fit all the stuff in easily. They charge a €10 premium for the large vehicle and regular taxi rates beyond that.
At our Airbnb, our host had offered to let us leave our boxes in the locked garage so I was prepared to label them as ‘do not discard - we’ll return for them at the end of June’ but when we got there she actually made room in her locked storage unit for our boxes. The bikes are parked in her garage though. |
| Category |
Type |
Name |
Description |
Service Provider |
Cost |
Kms |
To Date |
Total |
| Activity |
Cycle |
Look around Mörfelden
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|
|
$0.00 |
8.00 |
8.00 |
|
| Activity |
Hike |
Fog walk and recon in Walldorf
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|
|
$0.00 |
7.00 |
7.00 |
|
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We went to bed at about 8pm local last night, quite exhausted. Woke up at 7am local and there was ground fog - one of my favorite things. Woke up The Brent and went for a lovely foggy walk. |
We did a test ride today to check the bike assembly and Brent’s injured ankle. We did an easy 8km round to Mörfelden to have a look at the sights - the half-timbered buildings, the Goldener Apfel and the Wasserturm. The bikes checked out with a couple of tweaks and Brent’s ankle seems to be ok so far but he’ll need to take it easy for a while yet. One of the tweaks was that Brent needed different ‘toe baskets’ as the ones he brought are too short. After being soundly mocked at three bike stores (because toe baskets are so ten-years-ago), the fellow at the last store did find some in a bin of odds and ends, so… yay!
After we got back to Walldorf, we left the bikes and walked up to the self-storage place to see if they sell packing boxes as Laura will need one at the end of the tour. They did not, but we found a post office slash gift store that sells a kleiner karton for €5 that will do the job. Yay! We also walked to the bike stores in town to inquire about a bike box for Laura. The fellow at the store doesn’t speak much English, and was appalled at my attempts at Deutsch, so he wanted us to go away until tomorrow so there would be someone there who speaks English. I persevered and convinced him ‘wir versuchen’ and tried again. He then said that he would unpack a bike that day and we could come back tomorrow after 10am to get a box for Laura. Yay! |
| Category |
Type |
Name |
Description |
Service Provider |
Cost |
Kms |
To Date |
Total |
| Activity |
Cycle |
Part way to the airport
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|
|
$0.00 |
14.00 |
22.00 |
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| Activity |
Hike |
Around Walldorf
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|
|
$0.00 |
4.00 |
11.00 |
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Today we loaded all of the luggage onto the bikes and went for the obligatory awkward first ride. We went a little way up the bike path towards Mörfelden, then turned around and rode partway to the Frankfurt airport. Walldorf is the perfect place to start or end a tour if you want to ride straight to, or from, the airport.
In the photo of Brent in my rear-view mirror, you can see one of my favorite things about his touring configuration: in place of one of the front panniers, he has instead a cooler box that we can use to store some provisions, including beer! Yay!
After the test ride we walked over to the post office and bought a packing box for Laura, and then went to the bike store and picked up the bike box that we arranged yesterday. It is quite a small box so we will have to check it asap at the end of the trip in case it will not work for Laura’s bike. |
| Category |
Type |
Name |
Description |
Service Provider |
Cost |
Kms |
To Date |
Total |
| Activity |
Cycle |
Small ride west of Mörfelden
|
|
|
$0.00 |
27.00 |
49.00 |
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Some words about some gear choices:
- I am SO HAPPY that I brought the ‘Rhonda-proof camera’ along. Since I started using the iPhone for most of my photo taking, I rarely ever use the camera. But I decided to bring it along on the tour because I can put it around my neck and take pics while we’re riding. I would not be taking nearly as many pictures if I hadn’t because of how much of a hassle it is to take the iPhone out of its handlebar holder.
- When we did the Bike and Barge last summer I had neglected to bring cycle gloves along. I bought a pair of cheap gloves in Stralsund, but I couldn’t use them with the iPhone, so Brent nipped the ends of two fingers off for me. These are turning out to be my favorite cycling gloves.
- In early 2020, before the you-know-what, we were planning to do a tour in Germany in June 2020. In preparation for that, I tried a bunch of different iPhone holders and blogged about their respective strengths and deficiencies. I found that all of the ones that have weather protection are kind of awful. You often can’t see the screen through the cover and it’s a struggle to get the touch screen to respond. My solution was to keep a shower cap handy to throw over the phone in the light rain. That’s what I did today, and lo… it actually worked pretty good (in spite of how silly it looks)! https://www.faintofheartcycletouring.blog/2020/02/iphone-on-bike.html?m=1
We rode today from Walldorf down to Mörfelden, then west to Königstädten and Nauheim. Brent is learning how far he can push his ankle and he’s doing well. We will probably take it a little easier on the start of the tour than we would if there was no injury to content with but nothing that will really affect the tour. Yay! |
It took us three separate trains to get from Walldorf to Offenburg today, with connections in Mannheim and Baden-Baden. The first and last trains were the super-easy, roll-on, roll-off trains were used to in Germany but the middle train was kind of awful. We had to reserve sites for the bikes, which should have been my first clue. We spoke to a nice fella named Simon at the platform for the second train. He told us which carriages were for bikes and then when the train got here he ran to one of the carriages and we ran behind. He pointed at a carriage and said that’s one so we pushed our bikes up the awful steep narrow stairs onto the train as he yelled back that the spots were assigned and he didn’t know if those would be our spots. Well dang. To heck with it, I thought, I’ll check our ticket AFTER we’re on the train. Well… lo… we were actually in the right spots! It was almost a miracle. We didn’t care for the second train ride. The train simply wasn’t laid out for bicycles. It’s a wonder they even allow bikes on those trains. That being said, though, it wasn’t the worst we’ve ever had. I’m looking at you, France and Hungary.
The forecast was for rain when we got to Offenburg today but it held off long enough for us to get a bite and have a look around. It’s a nice little town, although I don’t think I’d make a point to come back.
Tomorrow we start riding for real. Yay! |
| Category |
Type |
Name |
Description |
Service Provider |
Cost |
Kms |
To Date |
Total |
| Activity |
Cycle |
Long way to Sand
|
|
|
$0.00 |
31.00 |
80.00 |
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We rode the long way to Sand today, heading east into the ‘foothills’ and then north through vineyard and cherry blossom-covered hills, then west to the campground at Sand. We had some cloud and breeze today but no rain at all. At this campingplatz there is no zeltplatz - all the sites are assigned. That’s unusual for Germany in our experience. We expect to see it more in France.
When the campingplatz bistro opens we look forward to enjoying some flammkuchen! Guido made that for us last summer and we look forward to trying it again, although I’m sure it will be made with much less love than Guido’s. |
| Category |
Type |
Name |
Description |
Service Provider |
Cost |
Kms |
To Date |
Total |
| Activity |
Cycle |
To Strasbourg via Goldscheuer
|
|
|
$0.00 |
37.00 |
117.00 |
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The new sleeping pads that I bought last fall came with a slow leak. Dang.
Although it’s not the end of the world for me to wake up every couple hours to pump it back up, it’s definitely not ideal. I can’t spend ten weeks doing that.
Brent tried to find the leak, but without being able to hold it under water the leak is not revealing itself. I may have to just buy a new pad in Strasbourg… |
For reasons of weather and gear malfunction (my leaky sleeping pad) we decided to head straight to Strasbourg instead of heading north to Achernsee. And when I say ‘straight’ to Strasbourg, I mean via Goldscheuer because Brent requested a ride of approx 30km instead of the direct route of 20km. Going direct would have meant going through Kehl, and providing lots of joke fodder about going to Kehl in a Kampbasket. Ah well. You win some you lose some.
The first town along the way was Willstätt and it was a particularly charming town so we both took copious photos. The first six photos in this post are all from Willstätt. Then there’s one from Eschau France, and one from along the EV15 canal. The last add-on one shows a complete outfit of warm clothing that I’ve never brought to Europe before… and I’m happy to have all of it!
We’re in France earlier than expected much to the dismay of our brains which were just getting used to German. Ah well… c’est pas grave! |
| Category |
Type |
Name |
Description |
Service Provider |
Cost |
Kms |
To Date |
Total |
| Activity |
Cycle |
Garden-Strasbourg-Garden
|
|
|
$0.00 |
20.00 |
137.00 |
|
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In 2015 we took a train to Strasbourg and rode immediately to Kehl. We never had a look around here, but now we finally did. La Petite France is really beautiful and the whole city is really interesting. I’m glad we finally got to see it. :) |
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