We didn't sail, but...: Tour de France....et plus

War, hurricanes, COVID, inflation/recession, polarization. Winter is coming. I'm feeling overwhelmed but making myself write a blog post because I haven't done so in a while and maybe if I focus on the fun times over the last few months, I'll feel better about the challenges ahead. And if not, at least I'll be up-to-date on blog posting. When I pulled up the draft of the last post I started back in June, it had only one sentence, but a good one to start with anyway:

Bonjour! We just returned from our first sojourn with bikes in France.

It was a rocky start. As we traveled with our bikes and gear on the train across Germany to Freiburg, Matthias discovered that his gear mechanism (a fancy one, of course) was leaking oil. We headed straight from the train to a bike shop in Freiburg to see if there was anything to be done. Unfortunately, the mechanic said it would require sending the part to the manufacturer to diagnose, something we didn't have time for. We weren't clear on how risky it would be to take off on our tour, but we headed to our first campsite (near Freiburg) where we would decide what to do. We had been to the area (Kaiserstuhl) before and it was one of our favorites. Also, rain was expected, so we decided to stay for a couple of days. We enjoyed our stay, riding around the vineyards without our packs and in the end decided to make our way into France and see how the bike would respond.

Vineyards and wine, and we weren't even in France yet!

Great decision! We entered France the next day and rode to Mulhouse (pronounced Mull-ooose, but I kept thinking of Bart Simpson's best friend) and from there along the Doubs river through Belfort to Besançon. We stayed two nights in Besançon so we could visit the walled city and enjoy our first meal in a French restaurant. It was lovely! And our first impression of France was great. The bikeways were beautiful and well-marked, the campsites were nice and affordable, and the supermarket cheese sections were jaw-dropping! We figured we could get used to this!

French countryside

famous lion statue in Belfort

Lunch in Besançon

Wine bar in Besançon

From Besançon we deviated from our original route. Since we weren't sure if Matthias' bike would hold up the entire trip, we veered off toward Beaune (instead of proceeding directly to Leon) to make sure we'd get to see it. We stayed in the campsite there for two days and enjoyed exploring the narrow (and very touristy) streets, a fun wine tasting and a great dinner at a restaurant recommended by Jennifer and Brenda. Leaving Beaune, we were treated to a lovely ride through the vineyards, down along a canal to the Saone River, which we followed to a nice campsite in Tournus. At that point we were in the middle of a heatwave, which made us reconsider heading down to Lyon. The bikeway to Lyon was reported to be in bad shape and riding around big cities with our packed bikes isn't all that much fun, so we decided to save Lyon for another time. We stayed an extra night in Tournus (actually one of my favorite stops on the trip) and took a day trip south to check out Macon.

Wine tasting in Beaune

More wine

Lunch stop in Macon

Supermoon at Tournus campsite

From Tournus we started riding back north along the Saone through a bunch of lovely towns/villages and what must have been hundreds of locks. One morning I counted 30 in a span of just 20km. Our stops ranged from tiny off-the-beaten-track campsites in small villages to major tourist destinations. My favorite on this stretch was probably the town of Gray, which didn't sound all that appealing (and we only stopped there because another campsite was closed) but it had a nice municipal campsite, a pretty church on a hill, and a friendly wine bar. We also enjoyed the town of Epinal, our first town on the Moselle River, where we finally got to eat foie gras d'oie at a lovely local restaurant. After that, we rode along the Moselle (more locks!) through Nancy and wedged ourselves into a very busy campsite at a very scenic bend in the Moselle. Then it was on to Metz where we visited the Saturday market and had a lovely a farewell-to-France meal. Our last campsite in France the next day was a nice surprise, beautifully situated in the town of Sierck-les-Bains.

Sunset in Gray

One of the many locks along the way.

Market in Metz

View from our last campsite in France

Although we were leaving France, we still had about 10 days to get to Frankfurt for our train home. We continued up the Moselle River (Mosel in German) through a bit of Luxembourg to the mouth of the Saar river at Konz. We then followed the Saar, which was incredibly scenic, passing through Saarburg and the Saarschleife (dramatic bend in the river) to Saarbrücken. We stayed an extra day here to check out the city (meh) and took a quick ride further up the Saar back across the border to a supermarket in France where we could buy Foie. :-) Then we headed over the hills and along the Nahe river to the Rhein and followed the Rhein down to where it meets the Main river to our last campsite near Mainz, outside of Frankfurt. We still had two full days before our reserved train so on day one we went to Frankfurt, where we enjoyed local treats of green sauce and apfel wein at a delightful restaurant. On day two we explored Wiesbaden (also meh) by bike and visited the tomb of the Red Baron, which was kind of cool. All I could think about was Snoopy, but I didn't share that with Matthias. On our travel day, we made it back to Frankfurt in plenty of time to have lunch (more green sauce!) at get our train home We had reserved spaces for our bikes on the long distance express train to Leipzig, but then needed to take a regional train (where bikes are transported without reservations as long as space is available) back to Gommern. Well, because of the new 9 Euro ticket--a summer special which allowed month-long unlimited travel on local/regional transport for 9 Euros--the last train was PACKED and we were very lucky to get our bikes onboard. We made it home unscathed, but the 9 Euro ticket had implications for us throughout the summer....

Saarburg

On the Nahe river in Bad Kreuznach

Green sauce and apfel wein in Frankfurt!

Link to Tour de France Photo Album

And then some more summer fun! For Matthias' birthday, we went back to Grossarl, near Salzburg. We celebrated his birthday there last year and liked it so much that for this year I booked a longer stay at the same apartment-hotel, and got long-distance train reservations for us and our bikes months in advance. Well, unfortunately, the wonderful 9 Euro ticket, which was intended as a relief for commuters (and travelers) over the summer, made the regional trains so full that it was nearly impossible to bring bikes aboard. And we needed to take regional trains on the first and last legs of the journey. So, it was either cancel the trip or figure out an alternative. We decided to go anyway and rent e-bikes there, which was hella expensive. The train ride was indeed stressful--delays due to increased summer travel in part due to the 9 Euro ticket--but once we got there we relaxed into the wondrous natural beauty of the alps and had an amazing time exploring the network of bike trails that brought us up to scenic mountain huts serving delicious snacks. It was truly fabulous!

Highlights, including birthday lunch

New friends

Scenic point

Link to Grossarl Birthday Photo Album

And THEN in August, it was time for my mom"s and (my aunt) Laurene's visit to Germany! We booked a 11-day river cruise/tour on the Mosel and another 10 days to visit Frankfurt and Gommern. I tried to keep it relatively simple and tone down my impulses to try to see as much as possible, so we ended up with an itinerary that included three days in Frankfurt, five days in Gommern, a stop in Hannover and then a train to Baden Baden to meet the tour. We stumbled and bumbled our way through but had lots of laughs and a wonderful time! In Frankfurt, we did a couple of Jewish-related tours (my grandmother grew up there) and had some fun nights out (including drinks up high and green sauce at the restaurant Matthias and I visited a couple of months earlier.) We took a train to Gommern (very crowded regional portion from Leipzig to Gommern due to the 9 Euro ticket, but we managed) and took it easy, hanging out and enjoying veggies from my mother-in-law's garden, as well as taking a few excursions to see the local sites. Then we went on to spend one night in Hannover, where we met up with Matthias' cousin Katja and her adorable son Paul. And finally on to Baden Baden for the third portion of our trip - a luxury cruise on the Mosel and Rhein. The cruise was altered because of low water levels in the Rhein, meaning an extra day on land and another morning of packing up and transferring, but the whole experience was marvelous. I really need to do a trip report on it (too much to include here) but stops included Strasbourg, Koblenz, Cochem, Luxemburg City, Trier and Rudesheim, and the cruising through the wine valleys was spectacular. The cruise ended in Frankfurt where mom and Laurene flew home and I got a train back to Gommern.

Eiskaffee in Frankfurt

Meeting Katja and Paul in Hannover

Luxembourg City

Cruisin the Mosel

From a castle overlooking the Mosel

The night our server stopped asking if we wanted red or white wine and just started pouring both!

Link to full Frankfurt/Gommern/Cruise Trip Photo Album

And wasn't it thoughtful of me to bring a Gift (German definition) back to Matthias? The day after I got home I had a scratchy throat, and took a COVID test (negative), but the next day felt much worse and took another (positive) test. Ugh. So three days down for the count and two more starting to feel better when Matthias got his scratchy throat. We're fine, but it did mess up our plans to do a bike trip across Germany to Emsland and the coast. I feel pretty bad about that because as I was out carousing with my mom and Laurene, Matthias was waiting around for his turn. So, since we lost two weeks to illnesses, we decided to take a shorter tour following new routes to some old favorites: Naumburg and Dresden. Being the middle of September, it was starting to get dark earlier and was also unseasonably rainy and COLD (after a very dry and warm summer!) We had those and other challenges; I think I strained my Achilles tendon (anyway, my calf/ankle hurt) and my rear brake stopped working by the time we got to Dresden. But, we managed to have quite a bit of fun visiting the Naumburg wine valley and then our old haunts in Dresden. We even stayed an extra night at the Radebeul canoe club campsite near Dresden to attend the first night of a big wine festival, which was great! And then we battled the elements on our way home.