Day 15

A short post today with few pictures.  After and good night sleep day I had a good breakfast at the country hotel where I had stayed the night.  Made up a couple of sandwiches from the breakfast as well for lunch (baguette, cheese and ham). 

I set off on the ride to Strasbourg which TomTom indicated was 97 km away (about 60 miles). All of this on the well marked and flat Rhine Cycle Route. Before I set off I noticed that my saddle had radically altered shape from that which started the journey. Intimate contact with my curvy, but hard, derrière being the suspected culprit!

I mentioned yesterday that the flat Rhine route was well populated with long-distance cyclists. It also has many local and day cyclists, joggers, rollerbladers, families walking, and even two young skateboarding backpackers! Yes, it is flat enough to make that efficient! Within 15 minutes I saw a pannier loaded cyclist stopped at the side of the road and naturally said hello. It was Glen, from Downham Market in Norfork. 

He reminds me of someone from the TV but I can't put my finger on it. He is a corporal in the RAF and is cycling from Milan to Rotterdam.  Clearly we were cycling the same route so we continued together. Both being lone cyclists we had not had many conversations and we managed to talk for the entire 60 miles to Strasbourg!

The route is pretty, but monotonously so. The still waters of the canal with the very occasional boat, pretty half-timbered villages, and avenues of green cana lside trees. Mostly it is along the excellently surfaced towpath of what I believe is the Rhone-Rhine Canal. The day was only punctuated by our futile diversions to very pretty and floral local villages in search of a coffee shop or bar. None in 60 miles! France, like Switzerland is closed!

The incredibly cheap aparthotel room I had booked (£29 and I had upscaled from the £24 one) had a capacity for two so I offered Glen, who had not slept in a room for five nights, a share. It cost an extra 52¢ (that's right, half a euro) for this! The room has a cooker, fridge, microwave and flatscreen TV.

The hotel also has washers and dryers and Glen is doing our washing while I blog.  I have been on the road for 15 days and Glen for 10 so this will be of enormous benefit to passers by. Strasbourg looks lovely on the Google images so tonight and tomorrow morning I'm going to be a tourist and do some maintenance shopping. 

Here are three images of the canal and villages which will give an idea of the pretty, and very easy, terrain I have travelled. I'll update on Strasbourg tomorrow. Going for a beer now and back for the second half of Liverpool vs Bournmouth which I think is on Sky.