Into Germany!

May 24

Crossing the Rhine

It was tough to leave Jean-Marc and Christine.  They really pampered me: endless amounts of delicious food, Corsican wine, Alcasian beer, Christine’s rubarb pie every morning for breakfast, Jean-Marc’s espresso several times a day, guided climbing excursions…you get the picture.  I had a great send off too.  They gave me maps of the Strasbourg bike trails (without which, I guarantee you I’d still be in Strasbourg), directions to the local supermarche and patisserie, as well as a ration of extra dark of French chocolate!

I found my way through Strasbourg and crossed the Rhine river into Germany.  My sister had suggested (a severe understatement) that I ride to Baden-Baden and bathe at the Friedrichsbad.  So, I gunned it up highway 3 and, after asking directions at least a dozen times, found the bathhouse (bathing castle).  It was an otherworldly experience and when I look back, it seems as if it were a dream.  I sprung for the works and got the brush treatment as well as the cream massage.  The whole endeavor lasted about 4 hours and had over 14 stages including saunas, steam rooms, tepid baths, hot baths, a cold plunge and a cocoon-like nap at the end.  I got lost often and, at times, felt like I was in a rat maze (a luxurious one).  I would like to go back and see if I could do it without needing so much instruction.  It’s a bit humiliating to be walking around totally naked and asking people that are fully dressed, “Where do I go now?  Do I take my towel with me this time?  With my slippers on or off?”  When I finished with the bathing experience, I rolled north.

The only map of Germany I had was one that I bought at a gas station after crossing the Rhine.  Let me tell you that navigating in a foreign country with a 1:300,000 scale map by bicycle is an exercise in futility, especially when you’re trying to stay OFF the highways.  It was the best map I could find at the time.  Today, I stopped at a bike shop at picked up a bike specific map at 1:100,000 scale (and still had issues).

There are some real differences between Germany and France (don’t roll your eyes at me).  It’s apparent that Germans like to “keep ‘em separated“ when it comes to bikes and cars.  As soon as I crossed the Rhine, I was asked to get onto the sidewalk.  Wishing to abide by the rules of the land I’m traveling in, I gave it a try.  There are bike paths (discontinuous at best) everywhere in this area between Baden-Baden and Frankfurt.  They vary extremely in quality.  At one point you can be cruising along on good asphalt, turn a corner, and be on technical dirt single track that you’d need a mountain bike to ride.  You turn a different corner and end up in a farmer‘s field with no choice but to back track.  Most of the regional highways have bike paths running along beside them (sometimes on both sides), but only between villages.  So, when you come into a village, you ride in the street (the drivers are considerate, but seem to be in a hurry to get somewhere).  When you leave a village you really have to watch for the opportunity to get back on the bike trail.  If you miss it, you’ll be separated from it for a while.  The bike paths are really bumpy, cross all the approaches coming off the highways and roads, force you to really slow down and cross individual lanes of traffic at roundabouts (instead of just going round the roundabout), and have random other trails coming onto them at all imaginable angles (so bikes come flying out onto the trail in front of you quite often).  It’s safer to ride in the street, but the drivers don’t like it when there’s a path for you to ride in.   I’ve already been honked at and yelled at several times.  There’s a bike/pedestrian trail out west of Missoula (in Frenchtown) that brings up this same issue.  Cyclists are traveling too fast to safely be on the trail with pedestrians, dogs, and casual bikers, but the motorists expect you to be on it.  Well, the trail in Frenchtown is WAY better than these trails.  I’m not going to over generalize though, the Rhine valley is very highly populated and things may change as I head north.  The maps make it look like there will be some good riding north of Frankfurt.  We’ll see.

I do love that you can get a cup of coffee in the bakery shops here (not to mention the fact that you can use the bathroom too).  Also, there are an incredible number of English speakers here.  Asking directions and questions about groceries is very easy here too.  I haven’t had to flap my wings and act like I’m laying an egg yet (I got big laughs in France with that one at the grocery store….since they don‘t refrigerate the eggs, I always have trouble finding them).  I’ve also been amazed at how smooth the manhole lids are on the roads, as well as the railroad track crossings.  You’ve got to love German craftsmanship!

I’m on my second night of camping in a random place here in Germany.  The campgrounds have been fewer and further between.  Last night, after riding north from Baden-Baden, a local steered me to a public picnic shelter to camp.  I’m not sure if it was low profile enough for me though; I got woken up at 1am to three flashlights in my face and a language I couldn’t understand.  Apparently, a man was looking for his son who hadn’t come home.  I was amazed when out of the borderline frantic German (complete gibberish to my ears at 1am) came, “A boy…..20 years old…..with yellow bike……was here?”  “Oh!”, I replied. “No.  I‘m sorry.”  It took me a bit to get back to sleep after they walked away.

Tonight, I “initiated some kindness” as Willie Wier puts it.  I stopped along the road and asked a couple sitting out on their patio enjoying a beer if they spoke any English.  After they said no, I asked if they spoke any French (you know I was desperate now.)  They replied no, so, I motioned setting up a tent and going to sleep and pointed to a freshly mowed patch of grass outside their fence.  “Ok?”, I said.  The gentleman pointed to his watch and asked how long.  I laughed and said, “Only one night.”  He laughed and said “Ok.” while motioning in the direction of the spot I had suggested.  So, I’m in my tent now with dinner in my belly (pasta with Comte cheese from the Jura region of France).

An interesting bike path going against traffic on a one way street!

The weather has really changed and today was hot.  I saw 31 degrees Celsius at one point on a digital readout.  It’s slowly cooling off this evening, and I’m certain I’ll sleep better tonight than I did last night!