Paris

So I have been in Paris for almost a week now and it still seems really
amazing and busy.

Day 1: We got here on a TGV from Beaune,and got our bikes to the
apartment. That was most of the day, as the train ride was 3:00 hours.

Day 2: Today we went to the Notre Dame! I liked it for it's
architecture but not for it's holyness. It was so crowded and noisy that
it didn't seem holy. It must have been so hard to build without modern
technology. The metro was really busy and half the time you had about 1ft
by 1ft of space.

Day 3: Today we got up at 7:30 and went to the Orsay and saw some art
work by the Impressionists. I liked Starry Night best. Then we looked at
the outside of the Louvre. Then we took the metro to the Arch de Triumphe.

Day 4: Today we just sort of hung for the morning and then in the
afternoon we took the metro to Saint Denis and saw a church with a bunch
of dead royals.

Day 5: Today I went up the Eiffel Tower during the golden lighting
(which is when 21,000 lightbulbs make the Eiffel Tower loook like it is
made of gold.) I have wanted to climb it all of my life and I can't
believe I got to do it. It is almost 1000 ft tall. Everything looked so
small from the top!

Day 6: Today we went to a little fair type thing and I got to ride a
Segway! They are totally amazing!

Thats it for now folks!
Erich

Cycling the Alsace Wine Route

We're back in Freiburg after an eight day circuit of the German and
French sides of the Alsace area. It was a terrific tour, and we'd highly
recommend it as a ten day tour, with possible additional side trips. We
had great weather the whole time, the first and second weeks of October.
Our route took us from the city of Freiburg, which is a large city, busy,
and many students. A highlight was the Munster, or cathedral, and the
market in the surrounding square. Bockwurst in brot, two euros.
From Freiburg we rode 36 km to Breisach, a quiet but pretty town on the
Rhine. The next day we rode up the Rhine canal to Kehl, the German town
opposite Strasbourg. Although some Germans had warned us that the route
was boring, we found the wetlands, views across the river, and barges
interesting. It was 86 km from Breisach to Kehl, but could be divided
into 2 days.
We stayed two nights at a nice campground in Kehl and went into
Strasbourg for the day. The old town, including the fantastic cathedral
and the canals, was lovely.
Our riding partner, Kevin, wanted to see the town of Dettwiller, where
his family had come from. So from Kehl we rode to Strasbourg - hairy ride
through the city - then up the Marne - Rhine canal. The canal had a paved
cycle path, and was fun to ride along the narrow canal and past multiple
locks to Saverne, 62 km. There were many rental canal cruiser boats -
that looks fun. In Saverne we stayed at a nice youth hostel in an old
chateau. An optional day ride would be further up the canal 15 km to the
boat lift, where they actually float boats in large tubs and lift them up
mechanically to get over the hill.
Then, we turned south down the Route du Vin. Winding through vineyards,
up and down a few steep hills, and through many quaint towns, the route
was fairly well marked but it was helpful to have several maps to use for
triangulating. The route is mostly on roads, with some traffic, more on
the weekend. Our route was Saverne to Obernai, 54 km, Obernai to
Selestat, 44 km, Selestat to Ribeauville, 18 km, to Turckheim, 22 km. Tom
and Kevin did a ride to Haut Koenigsburg which is described separately.
There are multiple routes, but we chose our route based on campground
availability, scenic towns, and not too many hills.
We ended this section by riding through Colmar, with its excellent museum
and another quaint old town, then back to Breisach and Freiburg.
Highlights included the smaller not-so-touristed towns, like Bergheim,
the vin nouveau which could be purchased from wineries by the bottle, and
the quiet sunny paths through the vines.

The Nickle Shines

10/17 Freiburg, GR

Kevin and I have been putting the Trickel Nickel, the name of our
Rodriguez tandem, through its paces. Four days ago we converted the
Nickel into a single bike and rode up to Haut Koenigsburg in the Vosges
mountains of France. The conversion from tandem to single bike took less
than half an hour and no adjustments to the brakes or derailluers were
necessary.

Haut Koenigsburg is a restored castle, on the top of a mountain roughly
1700 feet and 6 miles above the valley. The day was another in a long
string of beautiful fall days that we've been having ever since Kevin
arrived. We rolled along through the foothills and the vineyards for 6km
and I quickly became comfortable on the unloaded single bike - quite a
change from the heavily loaded tandem that I had been riding. The climb
started in earnest when we turned left out of Bergheim and quickly left
the vineyards of the Alsace behind. The rest of the climb was through a
beautiful mixed forest. The castle was amazing and the views of the
valley below were expansive. The ride back down was fast and cool. By the
time we reached Thannenkirch, only part way down the descent, the castle
was surprisingly distant. Another couple of kilometers or so of
descending and we were back rolling through the vineyards towards our
camp in Ribeauville. In camp we were rewarded with vies of the castle
while we reconverted the Nickel to a tandem. Quite an amazing bike that
works equally well as a tandem and a single bike.

Just yesterday Kevin and I repeated the Conversion of the Nickel and
climbed up to Schauisland (translated roughly as look in to the land) in
the Schwarzwald, Black Forest, of Germany. This climb was quite a bit
longer than the Haut Koenigsburg climb at 3000 feet in 11 miles. At the
bottom of the climb the leaves of the deciduous trees had just started
turning colors by midway up the climb the colors were in full force and
by the top the leaves were gone. From the top the views back down towards
Freiburg were spectacular. The descent this time was very fast with two
sections of 14% grade. Once again the Nickel performed flawlessly.

Dan and Smiley at Rodriguez cycles built us a very nice versitile
bicycle. These guys really know the meaning of service and the best part
is that they make their own bicycles so one knows that one is going to
get what one wants.

Above Strausburg

The picture is of me up on top of the
Notre Dame in Strausburg ,France. It was a Catholic chuch with a whole
lot of
Gargoyels and we got to climb up 300 and something steps to the top of
the tower. We are now in a town called Selestat. Today we are going to
somewhere in the vicinity of the town Colmar. We are right in the middle
of a state in France called Alsace. It's hilly with lots of vineyards.

A Visitor from Stateside

October 12 Selestat, FR

Kevin Detwiller has come over from statside to ride with us for a while.
He has brought along beautiful fall weather.

We've ridden from Freiburg Germany north along the Rhine river to
Strausburg, France. From there we followed the Rhine Marne canal to
Kevin's ancestrual home of Detwiller France. We finished that day by
staying in a youth hostel in Saverne, FR. The youth hostel was in an old
chateau, a very beautiful building, unfortunately our rooms were nothing
more than beds - much bigger than the tent so we still managed to enjoy
ourselves.

For the past two days we've been riding south through the Alsace wine
region. Nice quiet country side, charming villages, lots of vineyards and
lots of hills. The weather has remained beautiful, a bit cool but still
nice sunny fall weather.

Cruising Lake Konstanz

After leaving the Romantic Road, we took a train to the village of
Lauchheim, where Stacey's grandmother was born. Then, back on the
train to Friedrichshaven, on the shores of Lake Konstanz or the
Bodensee, as it is called here. The grape harvest is in full swing,
and we had a mix of rain and beautiful sunny days. The Bodensee Radweg
was well signed and took us through Germany, Austria, and then
Switzerland. We had some good views of the Alps and some great days of
biking along the lake. We also cycled out to Richenau Island, a UNESCO
site with churches and alot of vegtabl farms.
We then followed the Rhine for several days through some beautiful
forest along the river, and some cute towns. From Bad Sackingen, we
take a train to Freiburg to meet our friend, Kevin, who is coming to
cycle with us for a few days.

City Walls

Today the 19th of September I walked the city walls of Rothenburg,
Germany that date from the middle ages. It was fun imagining how hard it
would be to defend the city in battle. The walls were pretty narrow and
it would have been hard to maneuver up there when the battle was raging.

We also had a delicious ball of dough that is called schneeballen and it
is covered in powdered sugar and caramel.

Where Was Erich

This is old news but thought I better follow up.

Does this image help tell where Erich was?