July 7, 2015 was an unbelievable day.
We left Zurich in another weekday traffic jam. Happy to say goodbye to a city that was fun, but with a feeling of "been there done that." Rob Beach set up a new route on our GPS that was spectacular. We rode across the border to Germany and traveled through Germany's Black Forest. With essentially no change in language, Switzerland and Germany were only noticed by a change in home architecture. We stopped by a lake. Odile went for a run on a mountain biking road in the Black Forest before we both enjoyed a picnic lunch from an overlook high above a beautiful lake. The Black Forest has an understory of ferns, a mid-story of shrub trees, and an upper story of tall pine trees. It was truly a beautiful place to run and very different from the Switzerland Alpine Valley run with views of the cows in the valley.
In Germany we rode on the Autobahn without a speed limit specified. Mark was able to reach 192 km/hour in the heavy traffic, a pretty high speed for us. Mark enjoyed the speed challenge, while Odile enjoyed when it was over. We traveled over to the French border. A ferry ride took us into France. The change in the home style was immediately obvious.
We rode over to Mount Sainte-Odile, which is high up in a mountain overlooking the Alsace valley. The ride to Sainte-Odile was beautiful and relatively cool during the current European heat wave. Mount Sainte-Odile had hundreds of visitors on this day. At least 4 tour buses were parked and we had to park in the overflow parking area. The experience was memorable, so we bought items in the gift shop to share with family at home.
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| Sainte Odile Statue on top of Abbey |
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| Chapel of Tears with Sainte Odile's mother and father's crypt. |
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| Odile standing beneath entrance to Sainte-Odile. |
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| Sainte-Odile's coat of arms and possible future quilt project for Odile. |
We rode down the mountain, had a brief period of nervousness, with the low fuel light on, before we could find a gas station to fill our tank. We rode into Kaysersberg to our hotel, hot and sweaty, but also elated at our full day of excitement. Dinner was fabulous with escargot, poulet riesling (chicken in a mushroom and wine sauce). The dessert was fabulous! I ordered chocolate mousse with chocolate ice cream. Mark ordered fruit tarte. In the end, Mark and I swapped desserts and both of us were very happy.
On Tuesday morning, we walked up to the Kaysersberg castle from about 1100 AD. Besides being a great stair-walking workout and a historical landmark, it gave a great view of the small city of Kaysersberg, France.
It is hard to imagine that any day could top today with 3 countries, a run through Black Forest, and a visit to Mount Sainte-Odile. However tomorrow we continue on to Goumois, France and see what that adventure brings us.
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| Kaysersberg street scene |
July 7, 2015 was an unbelievable day. We left Zurich in another weekday traffic jam. Happy to say goodbye to a city that was fun, but with a feeling of "been there done that." Rob Beach set up a new route on our GPS that was spectacular. We rode across the border to Germany and traveled through Germany's Black Forest. With essentially no change in language, Switzerland and Germany were only noticed by a change in home architecture. We stopped by a lake. Odile went for a run on a mountain biking road in the Black Forest before we both enjoyed a picnic lunch from an overlook high above a beautiful lake. The Black Forest has an understory of ferns, a mid-story of shrub trees, and an upper story of tall pine trees. It was truly a beautiful place to run and very different from the Switzerland Alpine Valley run with views of the cows in the valley. 
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