I woke to the sight of three inches of fresh snow on the balcony of Carlos’ modest apartment. Immediately, innumerable thoughts of changes to my plan shot through my head and Carlos joked that I would do best to spend the day at the thermal springs in Baden-Baden.
After an hour of studying meteorological websites and helping Carlos fit his fridge, I decided I had better get on with my planned progress, fearing the possibility of ice on Friday more than the reality of fresh snow on Thursday.
I had been looking forward to an easy, pleasant ride down to Strasbourg along the French bank of the Rhine. Many people had told me that the road was good and was littered with interesting remnants of the war. Sadly, the snow had covered these routes and I was limited to the B roads between villages. Though similar villages had been the bane of Wednesday, these turned out to be the tonic of Thursday as I was able to make my way on clear roads almost all of the way. At one point I was tempted away from the route to check that the Rhine road was in fact impassable and following an eight mile detour I confirmed that it was. This being a flight of fancy, I did not add the mileage to my total. The only benefit of the detour was to see a snowy lake filled with swans and to take some middling pictures of the wintry scene. The swans became aggressive as I stopped to photograph them so I took off before they could tear me apart (again).
Once I was back en route I belted out the 40 miles to Strasbourg with no highs or lows save for a misleading sign leading me through five miles of countryside snow. Despite this I crossed the Rhine, and the subtle French border with it (pictured left), in plenty of time. I then had a relaxed ride through the pretty, wide avenues of Strasbourg to the home of Pascal, who quickly had me fed and tucked up in a hammock to rest my tired limbs.
Looking back on the day, I was pleased with the way I had overcome my early inhibition to complete my planned work and remain on schedule. My mind was therefore at ease as I rested with Pascal in his glorious hammocks.
Distance covered 53 miles
