winecheeseandafewbaguettes

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A little sound a light show

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Took the train to Nancy where we’ve never been. A very pretty town. No wood timbered houses here just large imposing structures. The Chardonnay is fantastic and I’m not a Chardonnay girl but the French chards don’t have that oaky velvety taste that I don’t care for. After a late dinner on Place Stanislas we were treated to a fantastic light show.

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Over 900k hiked and close to 300k biked over the last couple of months!!! Now we are resting until we return home on Tuesday.

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Finished our bike trip from Switzerland back to Strasbourg. About 300k in total. Such a nice ride today - fairly flat😁 and we were riding along a canal for a good 25k right into Strasbourg. This has to be one of the easiest cities I’ve ever biked into or out of. Yay for the French. They know how to make bike riding really enjoyable. In order to take pics while biking I have to stop and pull out the camera …

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The countryside is beautiful

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Today’s ride was from Kaysersberg to Obernai about 60k and very hilly. We went through so many small quaint villages that it’s hard to remember what they all looked like. The Alsace region is primarily sunny and hot which it was today and the vines thrive in this type of climate. Too many riders on the small roads today. We ran into two groups today, one with Vermont Bicycle Tours and one with Backroads Bicycle Tours. Lots of Americans on their newly discovered ebikes. For the last couple of days I feel as if we are riding through a TV set for a fairy tale. Houses are old, small, crooked, with flowers galore and one is prettier than the next. Oh, and then there are the castles. Above every village is at least one castle. Makes it hard to keep your eyes on the road.

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I love all the shop signs. The pretzel even has a crown! Most of these were from places in Eguisheim

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We rode from Colmar to Kaysersberg today and it was spectacular. Not only is the scenery amazing, the vineyards are popping, the cycle paths are great and the villages are soooo beautiful. We saw a group heading into a vineyards with their buckets and clippers. They offered us an opportunity to join them which we passed on. That was sort of silly. The first village we stopped in, Eguisheim, almost overloaded my iPhone storage. I took so many pictures Einar was getting antsy. Turckheim had so many flowers everywhere and Kientzheim was sweet. We’ve ridden about 140 miles over the past 4 days and me and my ebike are doing great. Nothing is sore!!

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Colmar which is known as the capital for the Alsace region was a disappointment, at least for me. I’m having difficulty finding a white wine that I like. I found the large town to be a bit down on it’s luck.

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Freiburg

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We are in a beautiful part of Germany near the Black Forest. Our day ended in Freiburg which is a large university town. We rode up country roads, through vineyards bursting with grapes, through small quaint villages and eventually into Freiburg. I have to admit, I’ve cheated. After 40 years on a road bike, I opted for an ebike. Wow, what a delight it is to ride 40 miles. When I need some assistance, I put the motor on low otherwise I just ride. It’s comforting to know help is close by. Ebikes have taken over Europe. I would say for every road bike we’ve seen in France, Germany and Switzerland we have seen 5 times more ebikes. Just amazing.

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Grabbed some bikes and we are riding along the lower Rhine from Basel ( Switzerland) to Strasbourg. Today we finished up after 50k in Mullheim , Germany where everything closes at 2:00 on Sundays and we are starving. Looking forward to a great week on the bikes.

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Hello Switzerland

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Mozart played this organ at Saint Thomas Church in Strasbourg

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Cheese anyone?