Goodbye France, Hello Germany
This was one of our shortest and easiest days – no rain, but clouds covering the hills. We cruised into Colmar, France, and checked out the old center of town. On the way out, several fire trucks raced by, and a few minutes were witnessing a spectacular house fire with lots of smoke. We watched for five minutes as two French firemen rolled out a trailer on wagon wheels with the hose reeled on it. They ran it a block up the street and connected it to a fire hydrant, and then ran it back to the house. To say they were slow is an understatement, but we were just visitors taking in a different culture. A comment was made that in Germany we could count on a speedier operation.
The German/French border was the Rhine River, which was no border – just flags of France, Germany, and the European Union. Since both countries use Euros, we have no money to exchange! What a change.
We rolled into Freiburg and have a very nice hotel for two nights! Yea. I got my wash done and camping gear all dried out. Terry and I explored the old medieval town, which is a mile square of stone buildings and narrow cobble stone streets. It is quite picturesque, which I can remember driving through some 25 years ago. Today McDonalds and Starbucks have arrived inside the walled entrance!
I should add that we picked up two young riders, who are our fastest, named Dan and Al. They are committed to ride to Beijing over the next five months. They left Paris ahead of us and rode on their own to Colmar, where the left their bikes. Then, they hopped on a train to Paris and flew to Boston for their graduation from Harvard Business School. I ask them what they were going to do with their new degrees, and they said they were making this trip to figure out what they wanted to do with the rest of their lives. Wow! I couldn’t resist asking Al what his parents thought of this, and he said “get a job”. There are a lot of stories in this group.
This was one of our shortest and easiest days – no rain, but clouds covering the hills. We cruised into Colmar, France, and checked out the old center of town. On the way out, several fire trucks raced by, and a few minutes were witnessing a spectacular house fire with lots of smoke. We watched for five minutes as two French firemen rolled out a trailer on wagon wheels with the hose reeled on it. They ran it a block up the street and connected it to a fire hydrant, and then ran it back to the house. To say they were slow is an understatement, but we were just visitors taking in a different culture. A comment was made that in Germany we could count on a speedier operation.
The German/French border was the Rhine River, which was no border – just flags of France, Germany, and the European Union. Since both countries use Euros, we have no money to exchange! What a change.
We rolled into Freiburg and have a very nice hotel for two nights! Yea. I got my wash done and camping gear all dried out. Terry and I explored the old medieval town, which is a mile square of stone buildings and narrow cobble stone streets. It is quite picturesque, which I can remember driving through some 25 years ago. Today McDonalds and Starbucks have arrived inside the walled entrance!
I should add that we picked up two young riders, who are our fastest, named Dan and Al. They are committed to ride to Beijing over the next five months. They left Paris ahead of us and rode on their own to Colmar, where the left their bikes. Then, they hopped on a train to Paris and flew to Boston for their graduation from Harvard Business School. I ask them what they were going to do with their new degrees, and they said they were making this trip to figure out what they wanted to do with the rest of their lives. Wow! I couldn’t resist asking Al what his parents thought of this, and he said “get a job”. There are a lot of stories in this group.
1 comment:
Hi Jim!
I'm happy you are having a blast. Take more pictures! I hope you have a good fathers day.
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