A week in London to drag our poor bikes out of their unheated lock up garage and send them off for a full service did seem a little excessive.However hubby’s tough road required 2 trips back to the service centre so maybe the week was actually required. The London cycle centre were very apologetic, sorted out the contamination on the brakes and realised they had fitted the wrong tyres on Tims bike so he couldn’t use all his gears as the tyres were too big and pressed on the gear mechanism.

We decided to risk Eurostar again but this time to Paris.(New service now of 2 fully assembled bikes to Amsterdam.! ) Cycling through London on a Sunday actually was fine seemed safer than cycling in Perth, Australia.

We did drop our bikes off on the Sunday and then travelled on Monday morning which did mean our bikes were waiting for us in Paris. We stayed at a small hotel the Pack and Carriage, the rooms were also small we had to breathe in as we entered to fit. You wouldn’t want to try and get in the room with suitcases, bike panniers were ok.Tube trains rumbled under the hotel shaking the room but it was quiet otherwise.

We’d booked a night in Paris in case our bikes didnt make it, like last year. Did have to phone/email to find a hotel that would store our bikes safely and found the Mercure and the Ibis at garel’est TGV both would store bikes. Opted for the Ibis and then visited 3 ibises before finding the right one.

Its a 10 minute walk from Gare d’nord around to Gare del’est.We hadnt worked out how to get to Strasbourg and then discovered the only TER train to Strasbourg that takes fully assembled bikes leaves at 436pm every day, so bonus a whole day extra in Paris.

Wandering around from Gare de l’est we went down one main street to discover we were back in Africa. Goods being sold on street on blankets, ladies having their hair braided and dyed, African restaurants.Quite amazing not a baguette in sight.

We couldnt find the fantastic Turkish restaurant that was meant to be around there so settled for a great Pakistani curry instead at a very reasonable 7 euros each.You really need to wear a mask to walk around this area, i think maybe because there are so many homeless in this area  the stench of urine on the streets is quite overwhelming.  We did have to deal with being harassed a few times so hubby bought himself a french cap, the Bondi cap was too conspicuous, no more hassles. A leisurely day exploring before heading off to station for our 41/2 hr train trip. Ibis let us have a very late check out for 20 euros (4pm) which was great. The station was a frenzy of activity and a whole area cordonned off by soldiers, prefer not to know what was going on.

Getting onto train was uneventful particularly as the train was already in the station, only 2 bike hooks in our carriage so thank goodness we got them.

The only excitement of the trip was 4 fully armed gendarmes rushing up and down the train looking at us all several times before finally exiting at a station..

Exiting a station in the dark into a city is never a good thing to be doing with 2 fully laden bikes but after only a few wrong turns we found the hotel we’d booked and our bikes were safely stored in the office for the night. We gave ourselves an extra day in Strasbourg,the idea being to find a map to Offenburg, not one to be found. A helpful bike shop mechanic suggested just following various signs.

It did give us chance to visit the lovely Alsace museum that was closed last time we were in Strasbourg. A heavy miltary presence around the streets of Strasbourg .Night time gangs now go around yelling and screaming outside hotels to wake up tourists.What is France coming to.??

Sleep deprived, and no map meant a few extra kilometres were cycled to Offenburg. Once we crossed the border into Germany signeage improved. I’d forgotten the French have this habit of leaving old bridge names on their renamed bridges , so we were caught out with pont du rhin which has a new name of pont du danube.

 

It was 4C when we set off,.I havent cycled in such cold weather for a very long time, in fact not since my 20s. My merino thermals did a great job with leg warmers on top plus 2 pairs of gloves.Didnt have to resort to the balaclava just yet.. i think its snowing Sunday….

Pleasant cycle ride through to Offenburg where we caught the spectacular  train ride through the Black Forest to Villingen. So from here its just 15kms to start of the Danube ride at Donauschingen. Starting point in snow is going to be fun..