Vive La France (August 30)

As has happened before, things got a little chilly again between about 5:00 and 7:00 this morning. Very chilly. I may need to rethink my “Sleeping Bag Liner Only” policy I’ve been trying lately (Side note: It’s still a great sleeping bag liner). I don’t know what the temperature actually was this morning but from my heat loving perspective I was not impressed. Fortunately I was able to shiver myself back to sleep while avoiding hypothermia in the process. I think tonight I’ll be bringing out the sleeping bag again.

Today’s plan was to cycle to Strasbourg and, in the process, leave Germany behind and enter France. That said, I wasn’t entirely confident in what my route would be because there was no WiFi at the campground. I think I forgot to mention that yesterday. On the upside, the guy at reception spoke English.

The lack of WiFi meant I couldn’t consult the sometimes-all-knowing Google as to my day’s route. As a result I had to put a lot of faith in my Garmin eTrex 20. That and the Maps.Me app on my phone. I have to say, Maps.Me has been very helpful and pretty good at coming up with cycling routes. The biggest downside is that it can take a LONG time to calculate a route. That said, it’s done a pretty good job of leading me along cycle paths and not putting me on logging roads (yeah, I’m talking to you Google!).

At the risk of repeating myself, this morning was another absolutely beautiful morning. The sun was shining early and often today. And by often I mean constantly. It was another scorcher of a day. And I loved it. Of course, all this beautiful weather (and cycling for that matter) is making my decision to return to Canada all the more unpleasant. Scheiße.

I managed to get on the road a bit earlier this morning in an attempt to get some kilometres behind me earlier in the day. That plan was moderately successful. I was on the road by about 8:30 which, by my standards, is pretty early. By 9:00 I was off the road again. No, nothing bad happened. As luck would have it, the early portion of my ride led me directly next to a McDonald’s. No, I wasn’t hungry … well, no more than usual … besides, I haven’t eaten at McDonald’s since 2005 and I wasn’t about to change that. However, I have used McDonald’s WiFi on many occasions – and this was another one.

All things considered, it was pretty brief WiFi stop as all I really needed to do was to compare Google’s routing to that of my eTrex 20 and Maps.Me. Double confirmation is good. But, when it comes to cycle routes, triple is even better.

With my route confirmed, I was back on my way towards the Germany/France border. I’m not going to lie, said border crossing was another disappointment. Even though I wasn’t on a cycle-only path when I crossed into France, I did so with only slightly more fanfare than when I cycled into Germany. There was a sign but nothing actually welcoming me (or anyone else) to the country. That said, it’s nice not having to go through customs every time I cross into a new country. Good in terms of time. Not so good in terms of photos.

I was unable to connect with any Warm Showers hosts for tonight which means tonight is another night of camping. Considering the weather, I don’t mind at all. The only issue being the fact that camping options in Strasbourg were a bit limited. And a bit expensive. Personally, I think 26 Euros for a tent site is a bit much. So I opted to continue past Strasbourg and cross the river to put me back in Germany. I found a campground in Kehl for 12 Euros. Well, 13 Euros if you factor in the extra Euro I paid for WiFi access. Yes, I actually paid for WiFi. It was 1 Euro for 24 hours which seemed somewhat reasonable.

I attempted to use the WiFi for work related projects (I can expense that, right?) except it would seem that campground WiFi tends not to like it when you try downloading a 2 GB file. The fact that my battery was rapidly running out of juice didn’t help matters. Oh well, I’ll try again tomorrow. Somewhere.

Oh, and for those keeping track (yes, I know I’m the only one) I crossed the 3,000 km threshold today.

Oh (again), there was a bit of sadness from today. I finished off my jar of Nutella. It had a good life. A very good life.

Oh (last one), for those interested, I have booked a flight back to Toronto. I depart from Lyon, France on September 6th … which means I have to pedal to Lyon, France (620 km) by September 5th.

Today’s totals:
Distance travelled: 112.47 km
Ride time: 5:03:15
Average speed: 22.25 km/h
Maximum speed: 41.32 km/h