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A 2800 Km bicycle tour of NE France and SW
Germany, August 2015
Zurich to Nancy and return, via the mountains
My Route - deliberately through the mountains.
This trip was made to attend a Geology conference in Nancy,
France. I chose to fly to Zurich and cycle from there and back to
enjoy the "black forest"
of SW Germany and also the Vosges mountains
in NE France, made famous by several recent race stages of the
Tour de France. A stage finished at the ski resort of Planches
des belle filles in 2012 and also 2014 and the TV coverage
showcased the scenic beauty of this area. But the Black Forest
mountains are part of the same geology as the Vosges mountains
(separated by a Graben) and are just as scenic and rugged as the
Vosges mountains. My route was never intended to be direct and i
sought out scenic, low traffic roads in the mountains.
It is time to go to 2 more conferences, with some cycling also of
course. The first conference is in Singapore for 5 days, not the
most exciting conference geologically, but it is en-route to a good
conference in Nancy, France just 2 weeks later, giving me the
opportunity to attend both conferences and spend 4 weeks cycling as
well on the one trip.My hotel in Singapore was a 30 minute walk from
the conference location, but less than 10 minutes by bicycle. The
traffic was not an issue as Singapore does not really awaken until
10 am and my conference started at 8:30am. On one afternoon, i rode
out of the downtown area and the traffic was heavy, but manageable.
I did accidentally ride through the cross-harbour tunnel on the
expressway for about 2 km, initially scary, but there was a wide
road shoulder and it was actually safe. After 5 conference days i
rode to the airport to catch a 01:30am flight to Zurich, but it was
delayed and left at 04:00 am instead. This was my first flight on a
double-deck A380 aircraft and it seemed to me that it did not
accelerate fast enough to get off the runway!
I arrived in Zurich 2 hours later than expected at 10:30am, planning
to spend the day cycling, despite limited sleep. Hey, the cycling
would keep me awake! I had used Zurich airport before so i knew
there was bicycle access to the terminal, but there was a surprise
in store. They were expanding the terminal and all the bike access
was blocked off with construction activities. The only access was
now on the freeway where i fought to cross 3 lanes of traffic to
reach the exit while trying to remember to ride on the opposite side
of the road to usual. Soon i was heading north towards Germany and
there were many bike paths to use on a warm sunny day. Most bike
paths have good signage and i relied on that for navigation
including some off-road routes through some forests. These paths
took me to Schaffhausen, where there was a big music festival. I
contemplated stopping there for the night, but even an
out-of-the-way hotel wanted A$300 a night, well beyond my budget, so
i continued on to germany. To avoid the worst of the climbs, i
ignored the prohibition signs and rode on a freeway for about 20 km.
There was no problem as there was almost no traffic. But part way
there were 2 toll booths i had not expected. Noone seemed to be
watching as i rode slowly uphill past both of them. Eventually i
reached Donaueschingen around 6 pm and found a gasthaus for a much
needed rest after a long double-day.
It was now sunday, so i rode out into the countryside in a big loop
as i waited until monday. There were numerous bike paths, and
cyclists everywhere, because this town is the start of the Danube
(Donaue in German) river bike trail network. Sundays are a problem
as few businesses are open and you cannot even buy a drink. I
eventually found a McDonalds where i could quench my thirst on this
very warm day. At least the cycling was pleasant, except when i
missed a turn and ended up arguing with an unfriendly dog and
finding myself on a dead end in some farm fields, having to walk my
bike along some ditches to find a way out. It's all part of
discovering a new country.
The important task on monday was to get a Sim card for my phone so i
would have internet access in Germany, France and Switzerland. This
is harder than you might think. I had done some research and wanted
an Ortel card, the only telco that worked properly in all 3
countries. But it was not available here. I eventually bought a
supermarket chain card (Lidl), which only had instructions in
german. Despite help from the local Information office, i could not
make it work. Eventually i gave up and rode off into the mountains,
a pleasant sunny afternoon discovering the extensively farmed
valleys, great cycling.I stopped at St. Georgen for the night where
i again sought help with my phone sim card in vain. At the Chinese
restaurant that night, i was served by a pakistani who spoke good
english. I asked about his language skills and was amazed to hear
that he spoke 2 Pakistan dialects, hindi, some punjabi, english and
german. He was about to sit for an exam on his German speaking
skill, which is required for him to get citizenship here. I
complimented him on his skills and when i paid the bill, he gave me
a bottle of plum wine. Quite a pleasant surprise.
To solve my internet issues i returned the non-functioning sim card
to the supermarket and went to a nearby large town, Villingen to get
a T-mobile card instead. As the main telco here, with many shops, i
hoped their system would work. However, i would have to buy
individual cards in each country as roaming is not an option, weird
as the next country is merely half a bikeride away! It took a long
time to organize the paperwork, but eventually i had a german phone
and internet service for 30 days for 10 euros.
Now i could return to some serious cycling and headed into the hills
for more great cycling. I found the cute township of Hausach at
about 4 pm and decided to stay there. The guy at the information
centre scared me and claimed that accommodation was tight, but found
me a nice gasthaus for the night despite his pessimism. I noticed
next day that there was plenty of accommodation in the next village
of Wolfach, just a few km away. I found a low traffic road north up
a long valley for a great ride over a high pass to Freudenstadt. But
now my internet service had stopped working. Grrr, this phone
technology stuff is aggravating. Although i was now on the eastern
flank of the ranges, i was surprised at the deeply incised
topography here. It seems that this is the divide between the Rhine,
Danube and another major river system.
Tidy valleys in the Black Forest
I was now quite far north in the "Black forest" (Schwarzwald) and it
was a short 80 km ride to cross the range, although there was a long
climb through the forested mountains, with an exhilarating descent
to match. Achern was an unexciting town so i found some back roads
through hilly orchard and vineyard countryside and continued to the
large town of Offenberg. Here i found a T-Mobile shop, but they
could not resolve my internet access issues. Late that evening i
fixed the problem myself. It was a confusing mess with multiple
variations of conflicting settings provided by T-Mobile. You have to
guess the correct ones yourself!
Although overcast and cool, next day i rode a loop up into the
mountains and back, discovering more ancient walled towns, tidy
villages, forests, steep climbs and bakeries, yet more great
cycling, despite getting lost for part of the way. It is common to
see whole families out cycling, with kids as young as 5 riding
confidently. People ride because they learned to do so from an early
age. Unlike children in Australia who only learn to be car
passenger!
I have noticed that many people ride electric bikes here, but none
of them have motors in the wheel hubs as seen everywhere in China.
Here they use a Bosch system with the motor in the pedal axle. It
does make sense, but they are astonishingly heavy bikes and sell for
3000 Euro, almost A$5000 each!!!!!!
It is time to cross the Rhine into France to ride in the Vosges
mountains, and to change to using a French telco. At least the great
cycling compensates for the aggravation of dealing with the telco
jungle!
Kingsley arrives at the conference in Nancy
From Emmendigan, my last stop in Germany, it was a pleasant sunday
ride through gently rolling hills westwards to reach the Rhine river
where the quaint border town was filled with tourists from the many
luxury cruise barges that travel along the Rhine river. The Rhine
river was big, but nothing like the Yangtze and i was unimpressed as
i rode across the bridge into France. My destination of Colmar was
only 20 km away and i found some well marked bike paths which
promised to lead me there. But the bike route was a meander through
boring flat farm fields of corn and seemingly uninhabited small
villages with no bakeries in sight. Eventually i abandoned the bike
route and used the road, which was much more direct. Colmar is an
ancient city and a minor tourist attraction, but it was extremely
confusing trying to find places as the streets were a complete
tangle, as is true of most medieval towns. I had chosen not to have
breakfast at my hotel and rode off next morning to find a
boulangerie and coffee. Ooops - in France you cannot have coffee
with your croissant at a boulangerie, and the coffee bistros dont
open until 11 am and do not serve croissants! Eventually i found the
only morning coffee cafe where i met 2 Thai engineers who were here
to escape the tourist hoardes in their original destination of
Strasbourg, about 60 km away. We compared our experiences of having
no interaction with french people, perhaps because english is not
easy for them. Now i had to sort out a french SIM card (Orange,
mobicarte) for my phone. I was surprised that this was not difficult
to organize, and they were happy to help me in english. It was time
to escape the city and cycle up into the foothills of the Vosges
mountains and i passed through vast fields of grapevines and into
the hills. But none of the rural villages had food for lunch, so i
returned to the city outskirts for a late lunch. As i sat on the
grass beside the bikepath, 3 touring cyclists with much luggage
passed by, then turned and came back to speak to me. They were
germans and had seen my website bicycle stories and recognized me.
We were all surprised to meet here in France with our only
connection being their anonymous reading of my website. I rode
another short afternoon loop into the mountains before returning to
Colmar for the night.
Next day it was time to travel deep into the mountains and i started
early, but sadly without coffee. As i began a long climb, i passed a
group of 6 cyclists standing by the road and expected them to soon
ride past me. A few km onwards, these cyclists did catch up to me
and for the next 8 km uphill we rode slowly together, without
speaking. We were all working so hard that it is normal not to try
and talk on such hillclimbs. But as we parted at the top, they did
not acknowledge me, until i said "au revoir", to which they then
responded. They did not want to be friendly. But the mountains were
great for cycling, with forests and little traffic on my devious
route to reach St Die de Vosges. I stopped at a bicycle shop to see
if they could make suggestions for overnight accommodation, but they
were not interested in a foreign touring cyclist. However the
tourism office helped me find a hotel.
The trick now was to find low traffic roads each day, with mountains
to enjoy. This led to a very circuitous but also pleasant route. At
lunch time i saw 2 cyclists sitting on the grass at a hilltop and i
sat with them and chatted. They were Belgian and came here to enjoy
the mountains like me. As I continued i noticed that there were old
mines in the region and lead, silver and copper had been mined from
this area back in the 17th century. I had some trouble finding a
hotel next night as i was in a rather small village, but rode on
another 30km and found a nice place for the night in the even
smaller village of Rupt-sur-Moselle.
One reason i had come to the Vosges mountains was because of the
Tour de France TV coverage of the race here some 3 years ago. It
climbed to a ski resort, "Planches des belle filles" and i decided
to do the same, despite the fact i was carrying 20 kg of luggage. I
found quiet forest roads, all paved, through very undulating
countryside of rhyolite volcanic rocks, before starting on an
extremely steep climb, so steep that i had to walk the last 250m. I
had taken the wrong turn and this was not the same road used in the
race. After another 10 km i reached the start of the climb to the
ski resort. There were many cyclists riding this now-famous climb,
which had signs every km and information about the race that day 3
years ago. It took me 1 hour to travel that last 5.6 km which
climbed 500m in altitude. At the top some french cyclists were very
surprised that i had ridden up with such a heavy load. We chatted,
but their english was only survival level (like my french) and a
normal conversation was not possible. The signs stated that the race
winner had ridden this section in just 16 minutes, so i am obviously
not a race quality cyclist! But i enjoyed the challenge - and the
fast trip back downhill. Despite the abundance of cyclists passing
through this area, there was nowhere to get food, drinks or coffee
and it was some distance before i found an open supermarket to get
refreshments.
I was now at the southern limit of the mountains and crossed
pleasant farmlands planning to find a hotel in the small town of
Lure for the night. But this busy town had no hotels, tourists
apparently dont ever come here. After some confusion trying to avoid
a big freeway, i found the secondary route to Luxeuil les Bains,
some 25 km away where i found a hotel for the night after a long and
interesting day.
Now i headed north again to reach Epinal, a quite large town where i
hoped to get help with my phone SIM card, which had stopped working.
En route in Remiremont, i found an Orange telecoms shop at 11:50am.
But they were just closing the door as they closed at 12:00. Well,
it seems they close whenever they want. I argued and stuck my foot
in the door and made them let me in, but they were not happy.
However, they could not help me and referred me to their shop in
Epinal, some 40 km away. Late that afternoon i sought help again,
but the guy claimed my phone was faulty and quit without fixing it.
Once again, i fixed it myself. My phone is a bit weird, but i
suspect this happens often with dual-SIM phones, which are uncommon,
although they are incredibly useful on international travels. At the
hotel that night i met a group of scottish motorcyclists who were on
their way to ride in the French alps. France certainly does have
some great scenery and mountain roads to travel on, but they really
do need to fix their spotty customer service, lack of decent coffee
and absence of convenience stores! (The stores they do have all
"conveniently" close whenever you need to buy anything.)
Although i was now in the gently undulating plains, i diverged back
into the mountains on a fine sunny day and enjoyed the forested
hills en route to Sarrebourg. It was now the last day of my trip to
Nancy, but it was Sunday and i tried, unsuccessfully, to reach Nancy
before the supermarkets closed at midday. I found wide open
farmlands and a canal path now used for cycling, but after a short
while flat canal paths get boring for me. I arrived at my
apartment-hotel at 1pm, but was not allowed to check in until 3 (how
convenient is that) and as i rode around the city and waited it
started to rain. I was fortunate to have reached Nancy before the
rain started, but it was still cold and uncomfortable.
I had now ridden 1600km through the forests and mountains, although
the direct route from Zurich to Nancy is just 350 km. Never waste
your sunshine by taking the short route. Now it was time to quit
cycling and attend the conference for the next 8 days before
commencing my return to Zurich.
Kingsley returns east to the mountains
The conference in Nancy was fair, but sometimes lacking good
technical content. And i had fun riding along the tram tracks to get
to the conference from my hotel. It is not really legal, but is
accepted practice and meant i could ignore all the one way street
limitations. And the tram is quite slow, it could never keep up with
me! After the conference i went on a geological bus tour with 18
geologists to the massif central, some 600 km away, for 5 days and
collected too many rock samples. Now my luggage is very heavy.
Lake Gerardmer and the route des Cretes (Pilgrim's route)
Now it was time to cycle back east to Zurich and enjoy more
mountains. Despite a late start, i made good progress to Bruyeres,
but the only hotel in town was not accepting guests. The tourism
office found a B&B some 10 km away in a tiny farming village,
but the host did not speak english and i would have to use french.
This turned out to be a most pleasant stay as the host sat with me
as we spoke simple french with occasional english words. She and the
other 2 guests were helpful and tolerant of my poor speech. She also
provided a magnificent 3 course meal which was beyond gigantic. I
also learned that the vast fields of corn being harvested nearby
were only for cattle feed during the winter. It seems that people
dont eat corn.
Next day i found quiet mountain roads to the major tourist resort of
Gerardmer beside a lake in the mountains. But it was full of tacky
souvenir shops and i did not stop as i could not find a coffee shop
that was not also a bar full of cigarette smoke. Back in the
mountains i found fresh, clean air, and great cycling up a long
climb to over 1000m altitude. Here i followed a road along an
original pilgrim pathway, (route des Cretes) following the mountain
ridge for many km. with great views down many valleys, before an
exhilarating descent into Guebwiller. I had completely crossed the
Vosges mountains from west to east in one day, and it was not even
difficult. To read my map and make plans i stopped at a McDonalds
for an afternoon snack, something small. The smallest was a
children's "happy meal". The staff person was confused and surprised
that i was ordering this for myself - apparently adults dont eat
"happy meals"! Because of my pleasant experience with last night's
B&B, i found another one to stay for 2 nights. Again my host was
pleasant and kind and we chatted using my infantile french, which
was rapidly improving.
I had chosen to stay here another day so i could ride a loop up into
the mountains without carrying my 20 kg of luggage. I found great
cycling on quiet but well paved forest roads, over 2 ranges before
my main goal of the Ballon d'Alsace, the second highest peak in the
Vosges at about 1150m. I saw many other cyclists en route, but none
were friendly. It was a long 150 km day with some 1500m of climbing,
but an excellent, albeit masochistic, day of cycling. On my return i
stopped at a bakery for a coffee and cookie, but after waiting a
long time for non-service, i gave up and left. Service is a foreign
concept in France! That evening i returned to McDonalds for an
evening meal. As i was not very hungry i again ordered a child's
"happy meal". The staff person recognized me immediately and this
time they did not give me a hard time about my strange (and very
cheap) meal choice. Nor did they now attempt to give me the
children's toy that always comes with this menu.
I was enjoying the mountains and contemplated staying longer, but
that evening my internet connection through Orange telecom stopped,
claiming i had used all my credit. Nonsense, i had paid 20 Euro and
had only used 20 mbytes of data. It was obvious that the 10 euro
recharge i had bought had not been applied, although they assured me
it was. As i was just 30 km from Germany, i decided to leave France
and its stupid telecoms system behind, and next day i crossed the
Rhine river and left France.
Carbonatite - A volcanic breccia of mostly carbonate minerals
In this part of germany there are some very unusual rocks,
carbonatites. I wanted to find these and collect samples and rode
north along the levee bank of the Rhine river, a most pleasant ride.
As i turned off the levee i saw a quarry in the carbonatite rocks
alongside the bike path and spent time studying the rocks and
collecting samples. There was a small village (Burkheim) nearby, and
some of the buildings were made from these rocks. There was a
low-key food and wine event in the village and as i bought a coffee
and apple tart, a bunch of 10 cyclists arrived to do the same. They
were all older cyclists and only one spoke english, but we exchanged
stories briefly before i continued looking for more carbonatite.
This is the famous Kaiser Stuhl vineyard area with wineries
everywhere, but i was only interested in the rare rock outcrops
between the vast vineyards.
After collecting even more rocks, i found a gasthaus in Bahlingen
for the night. Here i expected trouble with my phone as i changed
back to my T-mobile German sim card. But it worked immediately with
no hassle at all. Amazing, it seems many of the troubles i have had
were due to idiosyncrasies within the french Orange telecom system,
while the german system just plain works. If you are planning a trip
to France, go instead to somewhere else where the telecommunications
system works properly!
I have a week remaining to ride in the Black forest mountains again.
All i need is sunshine!
The Kaiser Stuhl vineyards on the carbonatite rocks
Kingsley heads back to the sunshine
Now in Germany, on a cool sunday i left Bahlingen for a circuit ride
up into the mountains where i found a festival with bands and
antique farm machinery before returning to the plains to Denzlingen
to find a hotel. But this town is close to Freiburg and merely an
uninspiring satellite township and all 3 gasthouses were closed, so
i had to continue to Freiburg. This ancient city has a large central
zone designated for pedestrians only. Usually one can cycle in such
zones but here cycling was banned because there had been too many
accidents with the trams. Nevertheless i cheated and rode to the
central market area to find a bookstore and buy a map. I escaped
without being caught and fined! Now i traveled east up into the
mountains, enjoying the forests and high altitude farmlands. My plan
was to reach a major road junction and turn to use a minor road to
reach Titisee-Neustadt. En route i saw a cycle-route sign and left
the main road to meander through well manicured farmlands,
eventually returning to what i assumed was the correct road. But
cycle-routes do not state their destination, and this route caused
me to bypass the road junction where i needed to turn. Despite using
my GPS i was not quite sure of my location and proceeded along the
road down a long and steep hill. Here i realized this was the wrong
road and i was now about 30 km west of my planned destination. I
either had to return up that very steep road or use a very busy main
road. I chose to use the busy road which was along a very scenic
gorge, but the heavy traffic was stressful, although the road was
wide enough that i was not really endangered.
Late in the afternoon i reached Hinterzarten, a surprisingly cute
town, so i decided to stop there for the night. But the town was
full of tourists and there were no hotel vacancies. A helpful
gasthaus owner told me about an out of town gasthaus 3 km out into
the countryside, where i found a room for the night. In tourist
season, the Schwarzwald is very popular and accommodation is often
hard to find.
Next day i used some back roads to ride through pleasant hilly
farmlands in the too-cool-for-me morning mist. As i reached
Titisee-Neustadt i saw a touring cyclist ahead. Daniella was on her
first bicycle tour, planned for 4 days, using only bicycle paths.
She stopped in the town for a meeting and i continued on to
Lenzkirch on a pleasant rail-trail bicycle path. It was time for a
relaxed coffee and route planning stop at the bakerei and while i
was there, Daniella arrived, so we compared our plans over more
coffee and rode together on bicycle paths about 20 km to Bonndorf.
She had detailed strip-maps of the numerous bike paths and it was
pleasant to completely avoid roads, although the paths are often
unpaved. We parted as i turned back to Schluchsee, a favourite
tourist spot on a picturesque lake. Although there were numerous
hotels and gasthauses here, most were full and i again had some
trouble finding a place for the night.
I found a quiet secondary road southwards to Waldshut-Tiengen on the
German-Swiss border next morning. But this meant descending to the
Rhine river and that afternoon i had a long but scenic climb back up
to Loffingen, a historically interesting village just 20 km from my
start after a 110km ride. I was now near Donaueschingen, the town
where i had commenced my tour several weeks ago, so i planned to
skirt around it and leave the mountains and travel east to more
populated farming areas where i hoped accommodation would be less of
a problem. My route to Fridingen was long to avoid using main roads,
but made even longer when i followed a cycle path which went to the
wrong destination. The paths are well signed, but only with arrows,
not destination names, and where paths intersect it is difficult to
know which path to take. The last 20 km was along a forested valley
and was very pleasant as i could use the nice paved bike path
without fear of misdirection. This path came to a railway crossing
and the barriers were down. An old man was waiting to cross the
track and i also waited for a while but there did not seem to be any
train approaching, so i sneaked under the barriers and continued.
Perhaps the old man is still waiting at the crossing for a ghost
train! Fridingen is on the Donaue (Danube) river and many cyclists
were staying here on the popular bicycle route along the Donaue
river to Vienna. Once again i got the last room in the gasthaus.
That evening i spoke with a Russian and a German who were in the
area to service complex Russian made machinery in local technical
factories. There are many high-tech industries in small towns spread
all around the region which i had thought was only a farming area.
As i traveled further east to Heiligenberg next day i found more
medieval towns and extensive farmlands and great cycling, but again
i got the last room in the gasthaus in this small town. I hoped my
luck with accommodation would continue for my last day in Germany.
It was now time to travel back westwards to Radolfzell near the
Swiss border for my last night en-route back to Zurich and i found
ancient townships and pleasant cycling through extensive farmlands
on a sunny day. Along the way i came across a cycling event with
riders being timed over a 15 km long course on the road. I found i
could ride almost as fast as the participants, despite carrying my
luggage. And in Radolfzell, on the Untersee (lake) shoreline, i
roamed around the extensive ancient city centre. This lake is one of
several, including lake Constance (Bodensee) which form part of the
Rhine river source.
It was time to travel to my last destination of Zurich and i started
off along the lakeshore, which soon became the Rhine river where i
crossed into Switzerland. It was difficult to find a direct and low
traffic route through the mountains, and i could not use my GPS to
help as it did not have map information for Switzerland, a foolish
oversight i had made! After 100km and some small rainshowers i
reached Volketswil from where i thought i could easily reach Zurich.
But there was now a maze of roads to confuse me and i was actually
still 20 km from Zurich city centre. Although it was sunday it was
stressful dealing with the traffic even though it was light. I
assumed i could follow a railway line or lakeshore for an easy ride
but the roadsigns all directed me up and over a nasty and
unexpectedly steep mountain. At least i eventually had a long, fast
downhill outpacing the trams into the city, which was busy with many
pedestrian tourists. Once again i rode on the tram tracks to avoid
the pedestrian congestion. It was another 10 km along the lakeshore
to reach Thalwil where i met my friends Christoph and Angela who
very kindly accommodated and cared for me before my departure back
to Singapore and Darwin in 2 days time, giving me a day to visit old
downtown Zurich and clean my bike to pass Australian quarantine
controls. It was now early September and the weather was becoming
rather cool so it was clearly time for me to return to the tropics.
I took the train to Zurich airport to avoid trying to cross the city
traffic at peak hour and folded the bike in the departure area for
checkin. Even including my rock samples the weight was still less
than 20 kg.
It had been a long and eventful journey of 2800 km in 4 weeks of
cycling (and 2 weeks of conferences) to discover many mountains,
ancient cities, vast farmlands and even a few rocks. And i also
renewed and made new acquaintances at the conference, where several
people remembered my bicycle adventures from the previous conference
in Sweden. The Vosges mountains are certainly a nice place to go
cycling, but so is the Black Forest region 60 km away across the
graben (and Rhine river) in Germany. I did feel slightly more alone
in France than in Germany and getting decent americano coffee in
France was close to impossible. The German bakerei stores were far
nicer places to rest during my cycling than the smoky French bistros
which i found to be quite unpleasant. And i remain annoyed at the
un-intuative french telecoms system.
Applied Mineral Exploration
Discussion and research relevant to mineral
exploration. 
