Day 81: Strasbourg to Offenburg - Grampies Go By The Books Summer 2014 - CycleBlaze

July 19, 2014

Day 81: Strasbourg to Offenburg

We walked from our hotel back towards the Cathedral and were struck again by the charming strong points of the town:

People, not cars (or even bikes) , filling the streets
Hybrid rural French, Parisian, and German fachwerk buildings
Tall narrow buildings with many dormer windows ìn the roofs
Outdoor cafes everywhere
Huge open spaces

We had left our bikes in the basement of the hotel, so we could head off for our 10 a.m. rendez-vous for a tour of the town. We were a bit early, so we took a seat at a cafe.We explained to the waiter that we only had 30 minutes, and so would like to implement an insane strategy of giving our order right away, and paying for it exactly when it would arrive.The man agreed, and I ordered cappucino and strudel while Dodie asked for hot chocolate. Ah, not so simple. Would that hot chocolate be desired weak, medium, or strong? Did she want it sweet or more bitter? And so on.

The drinks came quite nicely, within 10 minutes. But the strudel? The waiter said it was on its way. After another 10 minutes, I got up to chase it down. I spoke to one staffer inside the bakery, and this seemed to help, because in another 5 minutes the thing was taken from the shelf and put on a plate. Four bites, then, and we were done. Wow, just under 30 minutes for a coffee in France- not bad!

The 30 minute strudel. It looks a little burnt, but it was good.
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The guided tour was mainly centred around the cathedral, where the very well informed lady started with a short history of Strasbourg and the church, and then spent a lot of time on the construction of the cathedral, its structural reinforcement, and a review of just some of the thousands of features of the facade. We then went inside, for a similar review of the features.

One or two tidbits from this:

The cathedral was originally supported on oak pilings. But changes to the surrounding rivers caused the water table to fall, exposing these to air. Cracks developed in the north side (under the huge spire). It was during one of the periods of German control that the foundations were bolstered with concrete. Inside the church there is a teeny hard to spot figure of a man, holding up the church. This represents the German engineer responsible for the works.

The church has only a single spire. The original design called for twin spires, but the builders ran out of money. Again, when German control came, in 1870, they proposed to complete the second spire. The town declined, since over hundreds of years they had grown used to the lopsided profile. (Dodie had commented right away that the church looked unsymmetrical - but I had poo pooed this, of course.)

On the front facade, there are some rather saucy bits. A little figure making pee pee, and a mooning little beast.

The stone of the church has a unique reddish colour. It was quarried locally. The guide asked the assembled tourists what might be unique about the facade. When one person volunteered the thousands of statues, she poo pooed this, saying every darn cathedral has thousands of statues. (Her two special things were the stone colour and the single spire).

Roof dormers
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Even crazier rooflines, near the cathedral
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The guided tour begins, in front of the cathedral. Dodie lent thelady that map.
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Saucy detail on the cathedral facade.
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The astronomical clock, is from the 18th century
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The presentation was in French, and after 45 minutes, my head hurt. But the lady was only getting warmed up. She moved on to describe a number of the surrounding buildings, such as some Parisian looking palatial houses put there by Louis XIV, and one decorated with projecting stone heads representing people from each of four continents. The oriel windows, got special mention - these project from a house (sort of like a bay window) and offer improved lighting. They are a unique architectural feature here. Also, there are the dormers that are part of almost every roof. The attics were used for emergency grain storage, and the windows offered ventilation. At last we penetrated as far as the Little France district. This is almost identical to the Little Venice in Colmar - colourful fachwerk houses on a canal, with lots of flowers. In both towns, this where formerly tanners and millers worked, and where now hotels and restaurants abound.

Statue of Gutenburg, in Gutenburg square. Gutenberg's main city was Mainz, but he did much work here.
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The tour continues. In the background, a rare (for here) renaissance style building.
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The Little France district
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Little France
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More Little France
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A swing bridge on one of the canals
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A boat load of tourists passes the swing bridge
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Another typical Strasbourg street
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The white car has a pass that will automatically lower a pilon blocking the street. The truck, though, is another problem. Generally, cars are not very welcome in Strasbourg!
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The machine that wants your pass to clear the street.
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Our hotel
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Last look at Strasbourg
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We made our way back to the hotel, and laboriously extracted all our stuff from the basement, reassembling our little expedition on the narrow sidewalk. Then we used just the compass at first to head south and east, to make a new assault on the Rhine. We actually crossed the famous river on a passerelle - a bridge made only for bikes and pedestrians. We thought as we crossed how the idea of such a dedicated bridge, with no cars, would be unthinkable back home.

So, now what? We had gone over it last night. We are not too far from Frankfurt - maybe 4 easy days. But we have about 9 days before we have to leave. So how about... blasting into the heart of the Black Forest and out the other side, onto the Neckar. Then maybe check out the Ritter Sport chocolate factory in Stuttgart, before dragging our roly poly selves over to Frankfurt. Did you notice the "heart of the Black Forest" part of that plan? It equals hills. So we took out the Black Forest panorama map and looked for valleys. You can't actually pass through that way entirely. Oh well!

Our route through the Black Forest. Actually, we will bail out and head for the Neckar (at Oberndorf) as soon as possible. In this map you can see Strasbourg in the west and Stuttgart in the east. The Black Forest is Green.
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Kehl is the first place on the German side. Our plan called for heading for Offenburg, but of course we had no GPS track for this. Signage was pretty confusing, because where it existed is pointed to towns we sometimes could not find on the maps we had. Still, we did noodle our way through, helped by radweg signage that did pop up. Have a look at some of the routes on offer (when the photo gets uploaded). Cool, isn't it!

Offenburg is a nice town, with a walking district offering the expected outdoor restaurants and ice cream shops, cobbled streets, and attractive buildings. At first, any place to stay was not apparent, and I began to feel that this could be like Yutz, where there were all sorts of restaurants and such, but no hotels.

Finally we came upon the Hotel Sonne, in the high street. They said they had no double rooms left, but we could have two single rooms, for a total price of just 50 euros. We had been burned once before on price misunderstanding, but the dirndl clad girl spoke perfect English, and this is what she said. Dodie suggested that we did not need two rooms, since one of us could just sleep on the floor. Needless to say that did not fly with the German psyche. That is despite offering to pay for both rooms.

So here we are, with one of our rooms totally untouched. In deference to our hosts, we will both go in the single bed - no one on the floor! Of course, one could have gone to the other room, but after 47 years together that would make us too lonely!

Postscript: This hotel has been run by the same family for 150 years, and there is a book here on the whole history. I am not sure how old the actual building is, but as we have seen in so many other places, the ceilings have unique curves and the place is stuffed with antique furniture. It's cool!

The Grampies cross the Rhine (again)
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Look at these neat routes!
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It's hot!
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This kid is touring with his Mom. Behind the Mom is a smaller kid on a tag a long. The trailer does not have a toddler, but rather is for their gear.
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Our hotel in Offenburg. 25 euros per room, if true, is great!
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The room we are not using
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Corridor of our 650 year old building
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The view from our window
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Today's ride: 30 km (19 miles)
Total: 4,020 km (2,496 miles)

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