Day 11

Day 11, 12 June 2011

It may have been a slow day yesterday but we sure made up for it today! I feel better now my cold has subsided and we both had lots more energy. Also there were no big cities to content with, the sun shone the whole day, the road surfaces were perfect and the km's (97.5) just disappeared! It was a fabulous day riding in nature. We rode predominantly over the Rhine dyke, at times the Rhine was to the left of us (as we are cycling south) and at other times we rode through fields or forested areas. Beautiful big trees, the wild flowers are magic with the red poppies standing out of course, butterflies, insects, plenty of wonderful singing birds, bunny rabbits and we (Graeme) even spotted an squirrel. Did one of us mention that we spotted a small doe in the corn fields the other day, unfortunately it was a little too far away for us to make a picture. I also very much enjoy the boats on the water, initially plenty of cargo boats and river or cruise boats but today there were also a lot of leisure boats on the water. Plenty of people out and about, cylcing, walking, fishing, boating and camping as it is a long weekend. Today it is Pfingstdag. Pfingsdag is a religious celebration (so many weeks after Easter) remembering when Jesus returned from heaven to visit his disciples. It is a long weekend for a number of European countries and with this gorgeous weather everyone is out and about. Towards the end of the day we crossed from Germany into France where we will follow the Rhine for a good 1.5 days before crossing back into Germany. We have stopped for the night in Drusenheim which is approx. 45km north of Strasbourg. South of Strasbourg we probably cross the river and go to Mullheim which is back in Germany. We booked into an pleasant hotel which is nearly empty as there appears to be little activity in this part of France.

We had dinner at a local restaurant where Graeme did his best (in my opinion) to order in French but the waitress seem to have difficulty understanding his school French which became clear when the beer and salad never did make it to the table! And although she again did not get his pronunciation of profiteroles (which was exactly as she pronounced it) two portions of the delicious dessert did arrive and were yummy! Life is good!