Leaving Strasbourg
It was great to rest and recover for two days in Strasbourg, France. Our two-day liquid intake total exceeded 15 liters, mostly water, followed by chocolate soy milk, followed by apple juice. We clearly sweat a lot on our ride days and even though we are constantly drinking from our water bottles, we must run a deficit.
We said goodbye to our super kind airbnb hosts (they were exceptional) and hit the city roads by 7:30 a.m. We hoped that by leaving early we could beat the commuter traffic. It seems we were not fully successful, as the roads were busy, but we made it out safely. We got off route once in the city, not because the map was wrong, but because we were looking around so much we lost track of where we were going. This happens often. The sights, sounds (birds), and smells (strawberry patch) are amazing.
Our ride today was a mix of roads and bike paths. We’ve been spoiled by last week which feels like it was 90% dedicated bike path. Today was mostly flat, which is always nice. We’ll see what the rest of the week brings. It was beautiful and exciting in a different way today, but we will miss France.
As you’d guess, we did have a bake shop stop early on to get two pains au chocolat. We also stopped at a McDonald’s (mostly for the bathrooms – they have so few in Europe!) we tried their Beyond Burger sandwich and decided we won’t stop there again….
We arrived at our Airbnb a little after 5:30 p.m. It is super comfortable – so much better than a hotel room. We did our standard over-purchasing for dinner and breakfast at a nearby grocery store. For dinner we had a salad, mixed vegetables, gnocchi, marinara, vegan gyros “meat,” fresh amazing strawberries, and lots of water, chocolate soy milk, and juice.
The weather today was perfect: cloudy enough to keep it cooler, yet dry. We ended up riding 94 miles, and although we definitely feel tired, we don’t feel destroyed. That is typical as we get farther into the ride, as we get in better shape. Of course it also helps that we just had two rest days after our killer first week.
We are in Ludwigshafen, Germany. Now neither of us understands the language! Some of the ride was near the Rhein River.