Monday, August 6, 2012

Day 6 - Strasbourg to Karlsruhe

At last a relatively easy day.

I set off after lunch, preferring to make up my own route rather than following the designated Eurovelo 15 and headed over the Rhine to Kehl in Germany.

What I saw of Kehl was purely industrial, but I soon picked up a cycle route right alongside the Rhine, and started racing with a cargo barge a few hundred metres ahead. It took me over an hour to catch up and overtake, after which I headed 'inland' to a nearby town for my ice-cream stop.

The ice-cream stop is now a sacrosanct part of every day, and it was the main reason I decided to travel on the German side - everywhere in rural France is shut as I found out yesterday.

I'd been riding for over 2 hours and had already covered 50km for the distance to Karlsruhe. The final 30km was entirely 'inland' as I tracked (but manged to stay off) the highway headed north.

Karlsruhe is one of those places I instantly liked, it's quite a big city (hard to tell when cycling around, but maybe the same size as Sheffield?) and has lots of bars and cafes. It just seemed to have a good atmosphere.

I finished the day with a grosse bier and schnitzel on one of the main squares before getting an early night ready to put in some more km's tomorrow.

Distance, 80km
Time, 5hrs (4hrs 30mins ride time)
Total distance so far, 767kms





4 comments:

  1. Karlsruhe is smaller in area and population (by about half) than Sheffield, but have similar population densities.
    #pedant
    Apparently the suburban areas have quite a lot of well preserved Art Nouveau architecture. But don't go off looking for them!

    Karlsruhe:
    Area 173.46 km2 (66.97 sq mi)
    Population 294,761 (31 December 2010)
    Density 1,699 /km2 (4,401 /sq mi)

    Sheffield:
    Area
    • City & Metropolitan borough 142.06 sq mi
    Population (2011 est.)
    • City & Metropolitan borough 552,700 (Ranked 3rd)
    • Density 3,890/sq mi (1,502/km2)

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  2. Your Day 5 looks like a real epic! My fiend, Nicole Kuprian, who runs the Volkshohschule (Adult Education Centre) in Koblenz is keen cycle tourer and she will look out for you and offer you a cup of coffee at the Deutsche Eke (junction of Rhine and Mosel if you have an idea of when you will arrive?

    PS Don't be distracted by the Lorelei http://loreley-rhine.com/

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Alastair,
    Mark has asked me to pass on his phone number - can you drop me a line via this contact form and I'll put you in touch? He's in Koblenz this evening.

    Form is here http://www.justpractising.com/contact/
    Su

    ReplyDelete