Basel and Tinguley

Well we made it to Basel for lunch first stop the Tinguey museum we are hoping to find a laundry, post office here going to send a few things back to England to lighten the load for the impeding hills/mountains that stand in the way to Italy. Had to show my passport to get into Switzerland i guess being neutral means passport control,  although a quick flick through the pages was all that was needed. We passed novartis lab the old sandoz laboratory we one Swiss chemist had the bike ride of life time after playing with a fungus ergot found on rye grass. 

Location : Am Umschlagbahnhof 17, 79576 Weil am Rhein,

Basel here we come

Left the hotel and cycled down the Rhine all day, just  few km from Basel by we found a great swimming place and with the very hot weather we have been having and others swimming  here as well we took the plunge and got wet. The water was fantabulous still here having hot chocolate :-) tomorrow we will make it to Basel, but from what Gary a German we met here says it big and industrial.

Location : 79588 Efringen-Kirchen,

Bike issues.

Woke up on the banks of the Rhine with heavy mist packed up camp only to have a previous puncture start to leak again, where glue didn't hold I ripped off the old patch and put new one on. It stuck really well this time so it should hold for a bit longer.
Further down the river there was major surface repairs going on there was a detour in to town, should have been easy but was unable to get back onto trail.  My bike transmission started to play up chain jumping every so often it was covered in grit, grass and crap needed a good clean stopped in small village to get diesel although we just brought half liter of petrol minimum delivery for diesel was 2ltr so a can of WD40 is what I brought and sat in forecourt to disassemble and clean the transmission after a hour Bernt the mechanic came to see what we where up to he brought his brake cleaning kit out for us to use seemed most amused that i had chain breaker on tour but when he realized how far we had come and going it seemed ok. Top chap even brought out hand cleaner for us before going home to see his wife.  It was getting late by the time i had it all clean and back together so we checked into local hotel "Kreuz Post" where I'm eating one of the best cold breakfasts I've had

Location : Landstraße 1, 79235 Vogtsburg,

Is it a rest day?

After waking up bright and early this morning and on the trail quickly  we only cycled  7km to a wonderful picnic site down the river Rhine where we had pasta and hung the tent out to dry. We both promptly fell asleep on the benches for a good few hours. The suns out and its a absolutely glorious day.

We set off at around 15:00 along the Rhine managed to loose the Rhine cycle path altogether,  but we are still on route to Basel had wonderful views of the swiss hills with the sunset.

Location : Pfarrgässle 7, 79369 Wyhl,

Bloody ticks

Woke up this morning with a bloody tick stuck to my head covered it with washing up liquid to suffocate it and pull the little blighter off hope no limes disease sets in. We then started to travel  down the canal to Strasbourg.  what a wonderful city Strasbourg is, very old streets and the most impressive cathedral we stopped for some real grub at the Grenada i had snitchzal it was gulped down before the veg arrived. They had ran out of ice cream so i got one in a cone by the cathedral.

 Got back on the trail only to fine the gamin was having a few problems. It kept switching off as the map where loading, seems to be  ok now but had me a bit worried. I was convinced it was broken for a while. Now sitting on the Rhine river on the German side having coffee. The day seems to have raced away on us again. Now following the river to Basel and to start the Switzerland accent. So much for a rest day every thing seemed to expensive, even the camping ground which charged extra for bikes.

Location : Kronenhofstraße, 77694 Kehl,

Location : Kronenhofstraße, 77694 Kehl,

Towards Strasbourg

Woke up to a lovely sunny day but noticed the tent had the start of the dreaded mildew on the fly sheet so a quick call to hiking legend puk in new Zealand had us sitting about to 1300 to get it dry he recommended vinegar wipe over followed by baking soda and a good dry. Once on the road we climbed out off mouterhouse to breinstine standing stone where we met 12 cycle tourist from Quebec with a average age of 70 sure hope im still as fit as them when im that kinda age. Great decent through the forest to have lunch in a twee french town attracting attention of the local kids on  bikes. By the end of the day we had reached the Canal de la Marne au Rhin which should take us in to Strasbourg to join the river Rhine.

Location : 67170 Wingersheim,

Mouterhouse campground

We left the cycle way this morning to start climbing more hills through Germany and on to France stopped for lunch at Ligne Maginot the worlds strongest fortress at the start of the second world war the Germans weren't stupid and went around it through Belgium to take Paris the fortress is 700km long and underground. Leaving there after lunch for some more hill climbs legs really feeling it and descending down one hell of a hill to a camp ground by lake very picturesque but not looking forward to the climb out of here in the morning hopefully the tent will catch the morning sun and dry out getting worried about mildew on the flysheet it hasn't had a chance to dry out in days.

Location : Rue Neuhammer, 57620 Mouterhouse,

The river Sarr

The thunder clouds passed by last night and woke up this morning with a dry tent got the coffee on and it started to piss down, tent wet again :-( .

Climbed a few hills to join the river Sarr to sarrbruken great path met plenty of other cyclists some passed us as we turned of and cut through a city to rejoin the cycle path only to realize that we had got in front of them while drinking coffee well done bikeroutetoaster saved us a few kms there. We have now started week 3 off the trip and will leaving the river sarr in the morning covered 70km today, a good day in the saddle.

Location : Elsässer Straße 70, 66271 Kleinblittersdorf,