Altenheim to Wehra
Sure enough, the owner’s dad had opened up the garage and I was kitted up and rolling out quickly. Although I’d barely even got pedalling before I saw the supermarket on my left, and swung around into the car park. Leaving a bike propped outside while you grab suppliers is always a little nervy, but in this case it was quiet – there was almost no one around. Plus I could pretty much see the bike for most of the time I was shopping. Which wasn’t long. NC4K insincts kicked in and I knew exactly what I was shopping for. Minutes later I was sat outside tucking into what I hoped would be the last “home-made” breakfast of the tour. The idea of the shorter days was to enjoy proper breakfasts, but when circumstances change, you adapt.
Altenheim – 06:58
Sat there in the sunshine though, it was impossible to be anything but joyful at the prospect of almost an entire day of riverside riding. Sure, on paper it was the longest day of the whole day. And sure, technically it could have been described as all uphill. But with not even 500m of climbing across 167k, there was nothing which could have been described as climbing, Today was the flat part of the Rhein, after it came out of the hills.
First though, once fuelled up, I had to get back to the river. Which involved looping around fields, through a couple of pretty little villages, past a couple of back-up breakfast options that I’d marked on the GPS, and finally through light woodlands to the river again around 12km already into the day. And boy did that prove something of a surprise – the broad slow moving expanse of river I was expecting. The gravel path too. But into a moderate headwind, and against a slight gradient, I was suddenly moving way slower than I had been for most of the last couple of days. Progress felt, and was, a little painful. I began to wonder if I’d misjudged the day ahead, but I knew the route would eventually swing eastward out of the wind, and even before then the distant ridges of mountains would crowd in and probably add some shelter. So I made the best of it for now, part of which involved ditching the cycle path high along the banked up dike next to the river and dropping onto a much lower service road alongside. It meant I wasn’t getting quite the full riverside experience, but the woodlands on my left made up somewhat for that.
I alternated between river bank and service road at regular intervals depending on which had the better surface and easier riding. The main flow of the river remained, of course, on my right. But there were many channels and side streams to my left which gave the impression of almost riding through wooded marshlands. A sort of Rhein-side everglades. Just before the 30km mark I reached a road with a large queue of cars waiting on a ferry across to France. It was a fascinating sight, and I stopped to watch it dock and unload, grabbing a couple of photos in the process. A little beyond, the everglades-esque terrain doubled down and I found myself on small cobbled fords between islands in the maze of little waterways. The scenery was perhaps less dramatic than yesterday, but it was still delightful and interesting riding. And with near perfect timing, the route swung away from the river for a while and detoured into a local village. I knew this was an intentional loop on my part to catch one of few open bakeries today (my research had shown many places closed on Monday and Tuesday in rural Germany).
Rheinhausen – 09:40
As much as I love a French patisserie, there is a lot to be said for a traditional German Bäckerei
too. As well as tasty sweet pastries, they often have salty offerings too with various combinations of cured meats, and cheeses. And the one I had marked was stocked with both – so of course, I sampled from savoury and sweet both counters. Washed down with coffee and juice, and a refill of bidons by the lady serving and the stop could not have been more welcome or fulfilling.
The little loop into nearby towns and woodlands soaked up around another 10km before I rejoined the river again. Although, technically it was still the main Rhein path anyway – there was no more direct path thanks to the swampy ground on this side of the river. The only way to stay riverside across this part would have to cross on the ferry and then come back further along. It could have been an interesting option had I spotted it when planning. For kilometre after kilometre, the morning slipped pleasantly. Sometimes on river bank, at other times dodging around little woodland tracks and across streams. Most of the specific memories are hazy now. I vaguely recall a diversion where huge diggers were excavating and repairing the path. I can’t see the exact spot on my GPS log, but there’s a couple of sections where I didn’t seem to have been quite on the official path. So I’d imagine one was for that.
Breisach am Rhein – 11:45
After a while, I ran into the edges of a large, and very old looking town. The part I was riding through was low down by the river, but high up on cliffs above me were what looked like a castle and buildings from a more ancient part of the town. I was only vaguely thinking of food as I rode through riverside parkland, but a pretty looking town square caught my eye at a junction near the middle of town.
What started as a small detour to take photos ended up with me sat a café waiting for a large plate of cannelloni and salad. Quite by chance my buddy Christopher (who I was on my way to meet in Munich) mentioned that he’d stopped at the exact same spot on a ride some time back. Given his excellent taste in food stops I was glad to have accidentally discovered this charming little spot.
I only managed an hour and a half of riding after the early lunch stop before the heat of the early afternoon sent me looking for ice cream and more water. And sadly, I don’t have a lot of recollection of the section in between. I can see from the map that technically, what I was riding along was actually the Rhein, as opposed to what seems to be marked as the Grand Canal d’Alsace beyond. Honestly, in the intense glare of the summer sun it was all just a big expanse of water to my right – pretty to ride along, but hard to picture which bits were what. I was aware of the mountains to my left slowly closing in which I knew meant the part where I “turned the corner” (both mentally and in terms of how it looks on the map) was not that far ahead. But with no real rush today, a need for ice cream & shade came first.
Neuenburg am Rhein – 14:00
Once again, finding it involved as much luck as lunch had. The urban shopping street I headed away from the river on soon brought me to a shop with the most impressive ice cream and sundae array I have ever seen. And I didn’t even have a guilty conscience – not only was I burning thousands of calories on the bike, but the huge concoction I ordered had at least as much fresh fruit in it as ice cream. Definitely at least 1 of my 5 a day.
It was tough to return to the riding after that – but progress was good, and the riding was lovely. About 20km after the ice cream stop though I stupidly ignored (or didn’t properly read) a sign marking works and a diversion. Bowling blindly along for around 500m or so before hitting a barrier that there was no ignoring. And no way to hike a bike around either. Which is unusual – there’s normally some way to bundu bash a short closed section, but this was full on excavations and dangerous looking edges and holes. Reluctantly, I swung around and muttering angrily to myself rode back to the original diversion sign. In this heat 1km of wasted effort was a dumb move. I followed a combination of actual diversion signs, and my own nose for about the next 5km, before finally being able to rejoin the river path. Which, to my relief, contained some good news. A cyclepath The sign clearly indicated that I was heading towards Switzerland, meaning Basel was not far ahead. I’d soon be “around the corner” and heading up the wilder, less navigable stretch of river towards its source.
I’d thought of perhaps stopping in Basel for dinner. But even from the long range planning back home I’d realised it was likely to be too early, and also too far from my destination for the day. In practice, on the day, it was also too close to my recent ice cream infused face stuffing, so I mostly rode through slowly looking at the sights and trying to avoid crashing into the masses of pedestrians and cyclists along the river side sections. I did pull I quickly at a corner shop for water refills and juice, just to keep everything topped up for the last stretches.
Overall though, as pretty as it was, a hot crowded city was never going to be one of my preferred bike touring experiences so I motored on carefully through and made my way towards dinner. Sadly, at one point, through no fault on my part, carefully was not enough and I came within centimetres of what would have been a nasty accident. I don’t fully recall whether it was just before or just after my dinner stop. But I do remember the panic of seeing a fast moving dark blue BMW suddenly appear right in front of me, whilst I was still rolling with enough forward momentum that I was not sure I could stop. Only with large handfuls of brake and a last minute turn left along his line of travel did I manage to avoid T boning him. But I was so close as to pretty much be scraping his paintwork when I did. I’d done nothing wrong too – it was a sort of “4 way give way” of which there had been many through this area of housing suburb. I had slowed, checked both ways, before rolling across. I’ve no idea how fast he must have been moving, but there was no car in either of the checks I made before venturing ahead. So it must have been fast. Those last few frames of video still play in my mind about what could have happened.
Rheinfelden – 17:30
Fortunately the rest of the afternoon was sticking nicely to plan. In fact ridiculously so given I’d mapped all this out months ago. Given how many cafes seemed likely to be closed on a Monday, the pedestrianised area of Rheinfelden had almost more choice than my brain could handle. In fact, I can’t really explain what led me to the small bar/brasserie almost at the far end of this bustling zone. But it had shade, which was probably a factor, and a table where I could easily prop my bike and people watch too. My brain must have slipped into “eat somewhat healthy” mode, causing to skip the large selection of delicious sounding burgers and go for a chicken Caesar salad, with some added form of carbs which eludes me now. I do recall the surprising choice turning out to be ideal – despite being fatigued and uncomfortably hot, all of it got eaten and enjoyed. I have a vague notion I may even have stayed for an extra beer (or zero panache). There was very little riding to do, and I was fine on time for the day. The hotel I was aiming for was a newish looking, business type hotel – smart and functional, but no restaurant or other real facilities. So there was no real rush to get there.
There was a short section of cycle path alongside the main road before my route took a big route left, and then right again across the road and under the railway beyond. Now early evening, there was no one else around. After the busy city of Basel, the sudden calm, quiet riding across fields and beside the railway was as delightful as it was brief. Just one detour into a little riverside town, along a narrow bank where the river (or perhaps man) had made a small pool, and that was pretty much it for the day. I spun back up left, away from the river following a small brook which led out of the natural habitat and into a small industrial estate. Fortunately, due to the time of day, there were no trucks around. And it’s presence, next to the highway, was probably one of the reasons for the modern, reasonably priced hotel I soon arrived at.
Wehr – 18:55
Check was functional but friendly – a reasonably good summary of the hotel overall really. The girl om reception showed me down to a store room next to the breakfast area with my bike. Her apology that the bike parking area wasn’t finished was wasted. I much preferred having it locked indoors anyway. My last act before heading up to the room was to raid the vending machines for drinks and snacks – both for now and to top up riding supplies for tomorrow. The day had, intentionally, been a very leisurely one, and I was glad that my body seemed back to full form and able to cope with the mad temperatures once more.
One last thing to share is a little exchange Yoli and I had on WhatsApp whilst I was loafing around in my hotel room:
Robw: Remind me to tell you what I figured out about trees - they're trying to tell us not to lay tarmac in woodlands. But we're not hearing.
Yoli: Ooooh yes please
Robw: Gravel tracks have very few roots breaking them up - but tarmac gets riddled with roots breaking the surface. The trees know the tarmac is bad for the forest
Yoli: Yeeesss makes so much sense. Feels like it stops the breathing of the soil
Robw: After miles of wondering if came to the same conclusion. And how to trees communicate? Through their roots. They're trying to tell us
Yoli: Love it
Robw: My brain goes weird places on a ride