[Home]     Cycling Down the Rhine Monday 28th August 2017 Breisach to Erstein The previous night I slept well but still felt a bit awkward on the bike when we set off this morning. Fortunately the route was virtually all tow-paths and cycle-ways today so there were no hills, sharp turns or mad drivers to contend with. The Rhine north of Breisach ... it never Rhines but it pours After following the German side of the Rhine for a few miles we crossed over into France at Marckolsheim where there was supposed to be a bit of the old Maginot Defensive Line preserved and a related museum. It proved to be a bit light in substance and there was not really any museum there at all. Still, we called in and saw what there was. The Maginot Line Memorial at Marckolsheim At the time of my accident I broke one of the arms off my cycling glasses and had since had to cobble them together with a bit of the surgical tape which the hospital had given to me. I had also lost one of my cycling gloves at the spot, the ones with the gel inserts that protect your hands from the constant vibrations of the handlebars. Now following a tea stop at Sundhouse I seemed to have lost my repaired cycle glasses as well. This puts me in good company, however, since Andrew has contrived to lose not only his cycling glasses but his ordinary glasses as well. Pensioners on tour, eh! A pensioner flashes past After an easy final leg we pulled into Erstein without losing anything more and found our way to the Hotel Bord de L'Ill. There Andrew had a shower and diligently washed his cycle shirt and underpants before climbing through the window to hang them up to dry in the garden. It had been a hot, sweaty day in the saddle and I was just lying on the bed for a bit of a doze before having my own shower when Andrew decided to go for a walk round town to get a coffee. He went off and I dozed. Entering Erstein on the Rue du General de Gaulle Naturally I dozed in just my underpants so when a French woman appeared and gesticulated at me through the window I was a tad bemused. After a few attempts at jocular badinage ('Quoi?') I eventually worked out that she was annoyed because someone had hung up his underpants in her private garden. Annoyed yet apparently not at all disconcerted by the idea of addressing an old foreign gentleman wearing nothing but his underpants. Oh well, different cultures, eh. In the end I pulled on a pair of shorts, no doubt to her enormous disappointment, climbed out of the window and herded Andrew's laundry to a more acceptable location. I should have been a diplomat, eh! An adept at work with the chopsticks             A 'Beignet au Banane' for afters - obviously. That evening we walked into town and dined at the Dragon de Jade. At the DdJ they had no other customers and nothing veggy on their menu but nonetheless they managed to cobble something together and to their credit it was quite nice. It all went down ok anyway, and was nicely washed down with a spot of the old rosé. Everywhere else was closed by this time so we returned to the hotel for a last beer and a game of cards. We did a modest 38.25 miles today, bringing our total to 348.41 miles.