Day 17 - Germersheim to Seltz

70.8 km - Total so far 946.7 km - Route pedalled.      Relive Video (with pictures)

Video of the day: Europe Day 17

Nous somme en sécurité à Seltz, en France (pays numéro 3).

We had a long day planned so we left Germersheim pretty early. We managed a quick stop at the bakery and Hélène came out with warm croissants. Germersheim turned out to be a scenic little town and easy to navigate in.

Getting on our favorite type of trails, the ones next to the dyke, we quickly covered the 13 km to our first ferry. This being at Saturday, the ferry runs from 10 a.m. on. We had a 50 minute wait, 15 km later, we were in Karlsruhe to see the palace.

Karlsruhe was planned with the palace tower at the center and 32 streets radiating out from it like spokes of a wheel. It has numerous stately old buildings and should be on a list of places to visit. We had some unexpected detours in Karlsruhe but we quickly made the best of it. We think that one of the unexpected detour was laid out by someone from the City of Ottawa. There was no signage what's so ever!

We headed to our next ferry crossing with enthusiasm now thar we know about the Saturday schedule. Not long after getting off the ferry, we knew that we would be crossing into France. Although we had done a careful study of the map, we almost rode by the country borders. We mark provincial borders in Canada, why can't they have a nice "Welcome to country sign".

Our first small town in France was Mothern. It really doesn't feel French when you look at the traditional homes and the German looking names on the mailboxes. History explains that.

Waiting for Hélène outside the grocery in Seltz, I heard a lot of foreign languages spoken and the odd French conversations. Hélène had been looking forward to shopping in French but it turned out to be a more difficult task than shopping in a German store. The French of Alsace and French Canadian are not sympatico.

We let RideWithGps plan the route from the grocery to tonight's stay. We got the shortest distance route and much excitement riding almost single track mountain bike trails. 

That's it. Tomorrow we are heading to Strasbourg!

Chambres d'Hôtes Chez Marie