Day 19: À plus

Haut-Clocher to Kehl (84km)

After an uncomfortably hot sleep in the convent, spirits were not sky high at the start of the day’s ride. A terrible bike path through a forest did little to improve things, especially when the bike path petered out into a field. I decided to simply abandon the route and attempted to exit the forest as soon as possible in any direction. This turned out to be a great decision, I somehow found myself on a great cycle path that followed a canal for about 10km. The canal had long dried up but had left an abundance of vegetation behind, making the route very picturesque.

I enjoyed every pedal of the path knowing that it would likely end at any moment. Sure enough, the instructions read turn left in 200m. To my delight, the turn was simply onto another bike path that followed a different canal (this time with water in it) and this path would take me all the way to the Rhine River, which acts as the border between France and Germany. The canal did indeed stretch all the way to the German border, about 60km, skirting past Strasbourg as it meandered into the Rhine. I crossed the Pont de l’Europe and into Germany.

It was with a tinge of sadness that I left France, despite having not been to France in quite a while, my French speaking had been a triumph, I had ordered food, asked for directions, even given directions all with relatively no issue. Although before I bruise my back by patting it so hard, it is important to state that I did live in France for a year, therefore the basic tasks that I described above should be little source of celebration. However, as I ventured into Germany, I knew that for the next couple of months, the first question, (and possible only question, depending their answer) would be ‘do you speak English?’. Germany is the country where roads will turn into rivers, but for today the roads were kind to me, the best day’s cycling so far.