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.