Natalie is writing tonight. We were on the road by about 8:20. We both slept pretty well. It was lovely to listen to the rain and be dry.

I think this might be our first day without rain. The weather was moderate, with some of the day having cloud cover to help us avoid the sun.

It was a beautiful day and less difficult than our routing software predicted, so that was nice, but we did 88 miles, so we are tired. We shall see how detailed this blog is…. Maybe it’ll be more of a list. 

It’s been fun to see so many bikepackers like us. Lots of them!

Other than tiredness, our bodies are reacting well. Some trips the first few days I (Natalie) have had to use Ibuprofen, but all our hard training before must have helped because I’ve only taken it once so far this trip.

We were again much of the day on canal paths and quiet river roads, which we LOVE. Summer vistas truly were magnificent. So peaceful and beautiful and usually zero or very few cars. One especially beautiful river we spent a lot of time next to today was called Le Doubs.

Here are a few random things in no particular order. So far this trip there have been more public toilets which is great and different from our other trips. Is usually byotp (bring your own t.p.) bit that’s ok. We have hit at least one bakery almost daily, of course. Soooooo delicious. All along the canals and rivers we often see beautiful swans and herons. For a late lunch we found a good cafe with nice fresh salad and veggie pizza. Once on the trail we encountered a very large group of school kids apparently on a cycling field trip on the trail. I couldn’t get Pete phone out fast enough to video it, but they were hilarious and fun.

(Pete here) Our routing software uploads hill profiles and based on these we were expecting 15 tough climbs. Gratefully, it was wrong - we had a single climb of significance. That was a gift.

Twice this week we’ve been the inaugural guests at an Airbnb. This might be the result of us having to book so late. 

Tonight’s Airbnb is in a more modern part of a town called Zillisheim. It’s a pretty cool modern apartment. (Pete, add more here.) We grabbed a grocery store dinner and enjoyed again being able to take a shower. Having nice places to stay each night is our reward for having the killer long rides this week which are enabling us to spend two rest days in Strasbourg after tomorrow.