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La Ruta del Vino Alsaciana: Estrasburgo a Mulhouse. Early September, 2021.
I loved cycling down from Strasbourg to Mullhouse, which is apparently not pronounced “muhl–house.” We planned to follow the Alsace Wine Route, which was part of the Eurovelo 5. Since going on the French exchange, I’ve never forgotten the landscapes I saw on the train ride between Paris and Strasbourg. I remembered rolling hills like grassy oceans, stretching as far as the eye could see, with fairytale-like villages dotting the land like small islands, sometimes blending with the shade of the clouds above. I longed to see these hills and towns once more, this time riding through them on my bicycle. So, I talked my family into adding Alsace to the itinerary. They’d never been, and had to take my word for it. Leaving Strasbourg, I officially took over the navigation. It took a one-day learning curve to get the hang of it, and since then I do believe our navigation system has been top-notch. Even our previous navigator acknowledges this. We rode through vineyard after vineyard, up and down small hills like ripples in the land at the feet of looming mountains. Fruit trees (mostly plums–absolutely delicious) lined parts of the cycleway, and I can’t say I didn’t stop to help myself a couple times. This time, it was all sunshine and warmth during the five days it took us to reach Mullhouse. It actually took us a bit to adjust to the new weather. In cloudy and humid weather, we were constantly refreshed. Of course, we didn’t appreciate this until we were pedaling uphill on gravel in the scorching afternoon heat, under a blazing sun, out of water. Somehow, a mere 35 kms turned into six hours of pedaling. But what better place to be exhausted in than sandwiched between a mountain range topped with castles and towers, and green and golden fields speckled with villages. We also got to camp on a farm. And pizza. Pizza is always a good thing, especially when it’s also the only open shop in the village. The next day we decided to switch to the Rhine Route, which we thought might be a bit less hilly. We enjoyed one more morning through vineyards, then made our way inland to a camp on the French-German border, stopping for lunch in Colmar. Riding in Germany for a bit sounded really cool, so we tried it out for a day. Unfortunately, the path was made of large loosely-packed gravel and overrun by mosquitoes, so we had to flee back to the French side, which was a smooth asphalt cycleway that felt like heaven (and fellow cyclists once again said hi). We actually crossed back into Germany to camp (there were no camps within range on the French side), tried Schnitzel (delicious), and returned to France the next morning. I was pleasantly taken aback at how easy it was to cross back and forth between two countries–no border patrols, no guns, no walls. We reached Mullhouse, rested for a few days, launched this blog, and planned the next and last leg of our journey through France. Comments are closed.
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