Strasbourg, France

we spent the night in Strasbourg as it was raining and we heard it was a cool city.

As usual, there are canals and old buildings. a beautiful spot.

This is the Catherdral de Notre Dame of Strasbourg. it was gigantic and amazing!

crazy perpetual clock in the Cathedral.

We discovered a wine cellar beneath a hospital built in the 1400s. it still houses the best wines from the Alsace region of France.

The wines in these casks are as old as 1472!!! to put this in perspective, the wine in these barrels has been there since before Christopher Columbus set sail for America!

Our "French cuisine" from last night. we were hoping for a 6 course meal... turns out you get 6 kinds of pork! the language barrier strikes again!

we rode through too many villages like this to count in Germany! note the vines growing up and over the road. these people are serious about wine!

Red skies at night doesn't mean a dam thing in France! After this tremendous sunset on the Rhine, it poured to beat the band the next morning. We fed it for about 30 miles in the rain anyway! resulted in our first hotel stay to dry off and warm up!

hey Allspeed dingos... this photo is for sale!

This is by far the steepest road we've come across - ever! Thank God we were going downhill! Still, we had to use a full foot-skid in addition to both brakes to come to a full stop - yikes!

Classic picture of Hocheim, Germany. Common landscape throughout all of the middle-rhine section of Germany...whoever thought there would be so much wine? Not complaining....France so far has been all corn. Seems counter-intuitive.

Heather and her long-lost German sister Val, a great host in Hocheim, Germany. Showed us the schnitzel! ha ha.

France

4 more days of photos uploaded here: http://picasaweb.google.com/104484993780229620201

After seeing Val in Hocheim, Germany we took a detour from the river up into the hills of the Pfalzweld Nature Park in Germany. The riding was beautiful but VERY hilly. I guess that is good to get us in shape for the Alps! We were in the nature park for 2 nights.... night one we secretly camped in a outdoor shelter near a soccer field, perfect spot to wait out the evening thunderstorm. the next night we were down on a small lake. some sort of animal grabbed our food bag (15 pounds!!!) and started dragging it away in the middle of the night - good thing it woke Heather up!. no idea what it was although we did see some sort of roadkill badger / wolverine thing. either way a fairly stout critter! On the way out of the woods we were greeted with a 10 mile downhill! it was incredible. also tried a little fishing in a mountain stream at the bottom. saw a few fish, but got skunked. had trouble casting without a rod!

We came out of the nature park straight into wine country. Vineyards everywhere and absolutely beautiful riding. we then ventured back to the river and today we're in Strasbourg France, a beautiful city on the Rhine river.  We got our first hotel of the trip since Amsterdam, as it was raining fairly steadily yesterday, and Heather wanted to experience some French culture.  This city is very nice, we went out for dinner last night - Heather was determined to try some traditional regional cuisine, so we ordered something under the "traditional plats" heading for two.  The language barrier is funny - what actually came out was a huge pile of sauer kraut, a few boiled potatoes - and 6 - yes 6! - different forms of pork...literally.  Ham, hot dogs, wurst, bacon, unidentified meatballs, etc.  It was actually kind of disgusting although it tasted quite good!  Finished off with a local gevurstraminer (sp?) wine, we basically went right to bed:)
Onward to the Alsace wine region of France today - we have plans for a winery/camp combo tonight! 
All for now,
au revoir! Mitch and Heather

Germany with Val!

Yesterday, after a confusing start - Mitch backtracked 3 miles to the campground to get something we thought we left there, unrewarded - we were on the road from St. Goar Germany to Hocheim, the home of Valerie.  Valerie was a German exchange student who lived with the Harmons for a year - and Heather hasn't seen her in at least 5 years!  Conveniently, she lives very close to the Rhine, so that was our destination for the day...Nice and sunny, we meandered through the rest of the middle Rhein checking out castles and riding by groups of old people drinking beer - they are always drinking beer!  Morning beer is especially encouraged:)  Stopped by a local wine festival where Heather sampled the local reislings while Mitch enjoyed beers and currywurst, then on to Hocheim with a coupld of beers to sit outside Val's house like stalkers until she got home:)  So good to see her, we hung out and had some drinks, then went to the local German restaurant for some Schnitzel - delicious!  Woke up this to run a half-marathon with Val (she is training for the Athens marathon in October)...then some pastries and a real shower...we will be on the road again soon!

Hope all is well at home!!  We will check in soon...

ps.  tons more pictures uploaded right here: http://picasaweb.google.com/104484993780229620201

Heather and Mitch

Language barrier strikes again! Heather loses out...thankfully she figured it out and got two additional real glasses of riesling - a local specialty here! Thank goodness for helmets:)

Wildlife spotting!

Awesome!

Very old German town along the river. the building behind Heather is from 1306!

always wanted my own chef!

Castles everywhere!!

Rhine river vineyards. steepest in the world

Heather with a very serious bakery purchase!

camping in the rain. luckily they had a little shelter we could use!

there are a lot of delicious canned delicacies here. this is smoked herring with onions and some weird sauce. delicious

This was typical Rhine river scenery through the middle section... castles, vineyards, and fountains everywhere. the whole middle reach is a UNESCO world heritage site and its well deserved

down to the river we go. this was no small task with a 75 pound bike!

Gigantic Slugs in Germany!

Bread Alligators at the bakery!

Fruit trees are everywhere here. this is a pear tree trained to grow right on the side of someone's house! absolutely full of fruit as well

My favorite beer at the moment... Tongerlo Bruin. drank right were it was brewed in Tongerlo, Belgium. seriously good stuff!!