Europe 2023 from Frankfurt

Trip List Calendar

2023-04-21 : Molsheim
Category Type Name Description Service Provider Cost Kms To Date Total
Activity Cycle Ride to Molsheim
$0.00 33.00 33.00
I heard about a website called ‘Welcome to my Garden’ where slow travelers can camp in the yard of participants. I contacted a place in Strasbourg and last night we camped in the garden of Jean-Marie and Sandrine.

This morning we woke up to ground fog, and left early to let Jean-Marie and Sandrine get on with their day. He is a doctor and she is a civil servant who works with other cities to form partnerships between them and Strasbourg to develop co-projects, for example, sustainable city projects.

In addition to camping in their yard, they let us both take a shower and fed us an amazing meal and local wine. What a great experience!
We had an unfruitful detour in search of a DHL this morning to try and send my broken sleeping pad home. We’ll keep trying to find a DHL. Too bad the route was uninspiring though. We should have just gone north the Strasbourg and joined onto the EV5 there. Once we joined the EV5 after the fruitless detour, we finally found first coffee (and croissant) and very pleasant and scenic riding.

Molsheim looked to be a very pretty little town, and when we got here it did not disappoint. The campground is uninspiring, however, at under €13 total, a steal of a deal, so you won’t hear us complaining!
We walked into town and had dinner at Notre Idée Fixe and then took a walking tour of the old town using a brochure from the campground.


2023-04-22 : Ride through Alsace to Valff
Category Type Name Description Service Provider Cost Kms To Date Total
Activity Cycle Alsace to Valff
$0.00 38.00 71.00
There is a lot of rain forecast for tomorrow so I found us a little Airbnb in a town called Valff, outside of Obernai, which is on the EV5, SW of Strasbourg. We’re supposed to be heading in a generally north direction, but we have some extra days and the weather looked better this way, so we decided to do a bonus out-and-back the ‘wrong’ way on the EV5.

Anyway, Jean-Marie (the garden host from two nights ago) is from Alsace, and is passionate about it so he had some recommendations for where to go. Instead of going straight from Molsheim to Obernai on EV5, we took his recommendation to go from Molsheim to Rosheim, then take the "Voie verte" which takes you to the quarry of Saint Nabor. He also suggested a short visit of Boersch and Otrott before heading to Obernai.

Instead of staying in the ‘Voie Verte’ the whole way, I sketched out a route using cycle.travel (my new favorite app) that took us from Rosheim to Boersch and Ottrott before rejoining the ‘Voie Verte’ to Saint Nabor. As a result of that decision, we rode a HOUG (Hill of Unreasonable Grade) into Ottrott. By the time we left there I was pretty pooped and we just didn’t have it in us to go all the way up to the quarry, although we did get within a km. The last bit was just too steep. But it was a great ride.

Then on to Obernai to spend the afternoon as we couldn’t check in to our AirBnB until 5:00. The forecast was for rain all afternoon but that did not materialize and we had a great afternoon in beautiful and interesting Obernai, including late lunch at La Cour de Mémé (grandma’s yard).

Enroute to Valff, we detoured briefly at Niedernai to have a look at Château de Landsberg. It seems to be in a state of disrepair and probably not being used for anything. We couldn’t get a good look at it because of the wall around it, but Brent took a couple of decent shots by holding his camera up above the wall so we did get to see a little.

Finally we arrived in Valff after a very challenging 38km. Checked into the AirBnB, started a laundry, and then came the rain. I’m so glad it held off for us!


2023-04-23 : Rest/rain day in Valff
Category Type Name Description Service Provider Cost Kms To Date Total
Activity Cycle To Saverne
$0.00 50.00 121.00
We are taking a day in Valff to rest, and do a little laundry and bicycle maintenance. Valff is a tiny town outside of Obernai and our Airbnb is delightfully quirky with on-site chickens. Our host doesn’t speak English and I’ve discovered that my German has now outstripped my French. Alsace is a very German French place, so the host and I communicate mostly with German. Actually I think I’m speaking something more like Freutsch because I’m using French words in my German sentences when I know them.

Our host gave us a little pack of six eggs from her chickens when we got here. What a treat! We bought petit pain yesterday so we had scrambled fresh eggs and petit pain for breakfast.

When we leave here tomorrow we’ll be heading directly up towards Luxembourg, which we’re looking forward to seeing before our May 3 date in Trier to meet my long-lost cousin, Sylke.
It was a beautiful day today… no rain except first and last thing. Our laundry dried nicely so we took advantage of the day and went for a walk around town. I liked the vending machine that sells spätzle.


2023-04-24 : Saverne
Category Type Name Description Service Provider Cost Kms To Date Total
Activity Cycle Walff to Saverne
$0.00 51.00 172.00
Our longest day so far this trip - 51km. Brent’s ankle seems to be doing well so we’re happy.

We had a lot of angry skies today, and as the day went on, more and more rain. We enjoyed ‘second breakfast’ in Molsheim where there was a small market and carnival going on. It cleared off a little after we checked in to our Gîte, so we were able to go for a walk into the Saverne old town.

This is our first time staying in a Gîte. It is sort of like the old style of BnB where the host welcomed you, shares some local food and info, and, in the morning, actually provides breakfast. Valerie gave us a beer and turned mine into a Picon Beer, which is an Alsatian treat.


2023-04-25 : Gondrexange
Category Type Name Description Service Provider Cost Kms To Date Total
Activity Cycle To Gondrexange
$0.00 46.00 218.00
The ride to Gondrexange today was supposed to be about 41km but because of a couple of wrong turns it ended up being more like 46.

We started off in light rain and followed the canal west of Saverne. The highlight of the day for both of us was the old canal beyond the current canal - it was beautiful and interesting. We rode through a lot of rain to the top of the hills that separate Alsace from Lorraine and I foolishly thought we were done with rain for the day. Oh no. We had plenty of rain the rest of the way, and for a thankfully brief time, some hail that seemed to really have it in for my nose.

Along the old canal we found an abandoned restaurant that is now guarded by a pair of grumpy old garden gnomes.

As you can tell from the photo, Nemo didn’t seem to mind the climbing or the weather.

Since it’s supposed to be clear this evening, with a little rain overnight and then clear tomorrow, we have opted to camp instead of renting one of the trailers at Camping Les Mouettes. I hope it’s not a decision we regret.


2023-04-26 : Harskirchen
Category Type Name Description Service Provider Cost Kms To Date Total
Activity Cycle To Harskirchen
$0.00 40.00 258.00
Last night and today we’re finally experiencing one of our favorite things about France- hearing cuckoo birds! The first time we heard them, in 2015, we realized that neither of us knew that cuckoo clocks were based on a real bird.

We had a cold cold night camping but not too much rain and it wasn’t raining when we got up, so that was good. It was cold and foggy, though, and neither of us was really… feeling it. We had a long coffee in the local boulangerie and got down to the riding.

The ride today was pretty much entirely beside a canal, which is a little boring, but easy peasy riding. Except for the bridge. This is our second time encountering a bridge that requires us to push the bikes up a set of stairs (and control the bikes coming down a set of stairs on the far side). Oh well. We had practice for it in 2015. Mittersheim was a complete bust for finding second coffee, but they do have a great picnic area near the canal so we enjoyed snacks off the bike.

It turned out to be a great day for riding, and the campground at Harskirchen has one of the best zeltplatzes we’ve encountered. It has a ‘caravan’ set up specifically for the use of cycle travelers. We saw this once before in 2019, and it’s such a lovely service they provide. We can hang out, relax, and cook in the caravan. The zeltplatz itself is on a small peninsula off the campground. It’s very very nice.


2023-04-27 : Saarbrücken
Category Type Name Description Service Provider Cost Kms To Date Total
Activity Cycle To Saarbrücken
$0.00 51.00 309.00
It was cold camping again last night but no rain at all and we had a great breakfast at the campingplatz. It was a beautiful day for riding, but another day of following a canal, which isn’t very interesting.

At Herbitzheim we were stopped by a poorly-signed path closure. The info tried to provide detour instructions but they were woefully inadequate, as were the ‘deviation’ signs. It was cycle.travel to the rescue and I was able to sketch out a custom detour that added, at most, one kilometer of riding. It took us through Weidesheim, and then we rejoined the canal, and the EV5, at Wittring.

We are now back in Germany, and I am happy about it. My German is not great, but it is stronger than my French. Plus, we’re happy to be back in a place where restaurants open before 7pm!

We did an adhoc laundry in the shower and are going to have beer and snacks in the room tonight. Tomorrow we’ll be having a rain day, and hopefully send the broken sleeping pad back to Canada.


2023-04-28 : Rain Day in Saarbrücken
The weather forecasts are changing constantly these days, but we decided to believe the one that said it would rain all day today and we took a hotel for two nights in Saarbrücken.

I’m glad we did - it’s very soggy here today! Tomorrow is supposed to be dry and we’ll be back on our way.

We saw a bit of Saarbrücken today, and achieved our goal of shipping some stuff home, including the broken sleeping pad, some maps that we won’t be using, and an SD card with backups of our photos so far.


2023-04-29 : Merzig
Category Type Name Description Service Provider Cost Kms To Date Total
Activity Cycle To Merzig
$0.00 48.00 357.00
We rode today to Merzig, following the Saar river. It was very industrial and less interesting than other places we’ve been. The Alsace portion of the EV5 is much much nicer. We are looking forward to reaching the Mosel and seeing Trier, and doing a day trip to Luxembourg city.

Along the way today, Brent found a genuine message in a bottle by the river. We got super excited to o open it and read it but it was just a scribble. What a waste of a message in a bottle!


2023-04-30 : Konz
Category Type Name Description Service Provider Cost Kms To Date Total
Activity Cycle To Konz - the long way
$0.00 61.00 418.00
We were planning to go to Saarburg today, which would be a short-ish ride of 36km. I suggested that we could, if we were feeling ambitious, ride about 54 instead and go all the way through to the Mosel, and then west on the Mosel to the nearest campground. Either way we’ll reach Trier in just a few kilometers tomorrow.

I looked up Saarburg to see if there was anything worth stopping to see there, and HOLY SNAP - the place looked really pretty so we decided we’d better at least stop for a look around and probably stay there.

It’s a long weekend so most things are closed down. We were fortunate to find an open ice cream shop in Mettlach when I accidentally took us across the river from our route.

We were still riding along the Saar today, but it was prettier and more interesting than the last couple of days. At one point the Saar takes a long trip to the west and then turns around and comes all the way back east. At the very end, where the river turns back, Brent spotted a mystery thing way up on the hill. Turned out it was the Treetop Walk Saarschleife, which seems to be a sky walk similar to the one they put in at the Columbia Icefield.

Anyway, we reached Saarburg, and to my dismay, the only route to the campground would take us through a tunnel, which I wasn’t keen on. It was early so we decided to have a look around town before trying to get to the campground. Saarburg was even MORE BEAUTIFUL than the pictures I’d seen! It’s definitely a tourist destination, so it was very busy, but well worth the stop. It reminded me a little of Mont St Michel, and it reminded Brent a little of Rovinj (Croatia).

We grabbed lunch at one of the many restaurants open there today (yay) and then I suggested eschewing the campingplatz beyond the tunnel and riding on to the Mosel. It was only about 2:30pm, so we had lots of time to make the extra 20km.

When I plotted the route, we realized that we had to take a ferry to get across the Mosel to get to the campground. I looked up the ferry and the website said it runs until 8pm on Sundays and holidays, so no problem - off we went.

When we reached the ferry dock, however, it appeared that the ferry had stopped for the day. The sign said it stopped running at 4:50 - much earlier than the 8pm the website said. But we were there at 4:30 so it should still have been running. It was not. After humming and hawing about what to do, and having horrible visions of stealth camping somewhere, I found a campground a few kms east at Konz. We decided to go for it. It’s not really a cycle/tent friendly place, but we managed to eke out a small plot. One thing that was interesting is that they have a self-check-in kiosk to terrorize Brent (who much prefers dealing with humans). The entire ride was close to 61km. Our longest yet on h this trip, but I’m sitting on a patio drinking a beer now so I think I’ll get over it.


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