Day 7 (15.6.): Speyer - Seltz/France (92km). I stayed in Speyer in the morning in order to visit the cathedral (biggest Romanic church and one of the biggest churches of Christendom). It was one of the most impressive churches I have seen, really :) I continued my way towards France at midday and made it to France in the evening (no sign that I had crossed the border - only when my way was blocked (once again) well into France with a sign <<route barree>> did I realize I was in a different country already.
Day 8 (16.6.): Seltz - Strasbourg (80km). I got up exceptionally early (5.30am) and left at 8am (it takes me well over 2 hours to get the bike ready in the morning..) because weather forecasts predicted heavy rain for midday in Strasbourg. Indeed it was not an hour after I had arrived in the city (took an auberge de jeunesse) that heavy rain started which was to last the whole day. So I had to explore the city with a waterproof rain jacket, and visisted yet another church (Strasbourg Cathedral, one of the tallest churches in the world), the old city part << La Petite France>> and the EU quarter including the representative buildings of the European Parliament, the Council of Europe, and the European Court of Human Rights.
Outlook: My plan for the upcoming week or so is to proceed along the Wine Route in the Vosges Mountains (ca 150km) and to take the European Cycle Path 6 to Chalon-sur-Saone (ca 350km) and then head towards Lyon.
Preliminary conclusions: I am quite ok with the selection of items I took with me, except for the tent. I might buy a different tent later, I will see.
The bike has been good so far; but my chain broke down near Mainz and the roulettes in one of the pedals crushed on the way to Strasbourg. In general though, the bikes is running smoothly, so that I can do an average of ca 25km/h on a flat paved road and without wind blowing in my face. Slow driving in towns, waiting at red lights, uphill parts of the route (Kassel-Marburg and Taunus in particular), and the like take down my average speed to about 20kh/h.
A bientot :)
P.S.: I realized that I cannot upload pictures in the internet shop, but I am trying to find other means to do this!
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