FrogInBar Saves The Day

20/05/15 Colmar to Strasbourg, 82kms

FrogInBar Saves The Day

The weather today is going to be cold. Maybe some rain from lunch time until around 6pm. This news does not help me get out of bed. But, I will try out my warm cycling jersey. We want to get to Strasbourg today, about 74kms, so Wills' plan is to get up, pack and head off and then find somewhere along our trail to stop and make brekkie. Coffee, tea and cereal. Sounds fair, I'm not really hungry anyway after last nights awesome dinner.

Down stairs, packing the bikes, and yes-sir-ree Bob, it is cold. Maybe 8C, with a slight chilly breeze. Might even pull out the full gloves today. We've decided to head back towards the canal we were on yesterday, as we discovered it actually runs all the way from Basel to Strasbourg. So a little sideways travel, then direct to our destination centre.

How about this one Will? Oh, it's on a lean, ok.

Not far into our day, we were going through a little village, on the road, and Will spotted the cycle path. He bunny hopped his bike up the curb, and carried on. I did the same, but with all the extra liquid (juice and milk) in my front, it was a bit heavy, and the bump a bit high. The pannier came off, and I ran it over, pushing my chain off. Not technically a crash, I stayed on the bike, just a mishap. I picked up the stray bag and reattached it, noting some oats falling out the bottom...oops! Will sorted the chain, and off we went, hoping we still had something edible in there.

We passed a couple of concrete seats, that could have been the brekkie stop, but decided they were not quite right, you know, too cold, too hot etc!  We found a set of two and stopped. I was getting hungry now, and Will was in need of coffee. Lucky we chose those ones, cause we didn't see anything after that for most of the day.

Aah, just right. Two seats, lots of bush (for personal time) and plenty of room.

Will got the stove going and I got our food out of my poor front pannier. It now has a hole in the bottom, (with oats falling out of it). The cereal box was mashed, but the milk and juice were safe. Hot drinks made, cereal served, and it started to drizzle. Bugger! Not much, but enough to make us run around and cover the bike seats and panniers, and put on raincoats. All sorted, and it stopped, ha ha ha! Typical.

Ha ha ha, these cycle routes even have repair centres with tools you can use.

It was a pretty cold day, and I left my raincoat on for quite a while. The path was great, well signposted, and easy to ride. We saw heaps of swans with babies, and lots of fish in the canal. These are the ones the fishermen are supposed to be catching. Around 1:30pm, it was really dark and looking like it is going to poor down. On top of that, I was desperate for a toilet, if you know what I mean? We came to a junction, with a little town about 1.5kms away, and headed there. We knew things would be closed, but maybe we'd find a public toilet and some shelter.  Better than that, we found an open Super U, supermarket. Food, shelter and a loo all in one.

What a great track, but this pollen snow is still falling.

Getting darker, and colder, but makes great pictures.

Again, we got all prepared for the rain, and it went elsewhere. Thank you Mother Nature. So we sat outside the Super U, and ate our lunch, then headed back to the canal to carry on. It was getting colder, so I pulled out the big guns (full gloves), and left my hair down to keep my neck warm. Pretty good.

Super U, yay, even supplied concrete seats. Almost like those other ones...

It really is magic, we must be getting close to the city, we're starting to see cycle traffic.

How are riding with your jacket open, it's bloody cold.

The canal was an easy ride, and took us into Strasbourg city with no fuss. We could see the traffic jams on the roads around us, and we were very happy to not be in them. We were heading for the camping ground on the west side of the city, as some Dutch cyclists we'd chatted to had told us everything was full due to the European Parliament being in session. It is public and lots of people come to watch. Weird!

On the outskirts of Strasbourg, some sort of kayak handball?

6 lanes of traffic, 4 for cars, 2 for bikes. Really good!

Following all the cycle paths, that keep us out of the busy traffic, we made our way to where the campground should be, with minimal fuss. But there didn't seem to be a camp ground there. Shit! We asked a local man out walking, who just shrugged his shoulders and pointed vaguely in some direction. Shit! Round and around we went only to discover it was right in front of us, but closed. It is undergoing a massive refurbishment, and opens at the end of June. Shit, shit, shit! Now what?

Hmmm, this is not good! The campground is a construction site.

There was a hostel marked right next door, so we stopped out front, staring at it, until a young guy came out to see if we needed help. He didn't speak English, but went in and found the manager, who told us in French, we could not stay there, but there was another hostel in the direction of Germany, another 10kms away! Shit, shit, shit, shit! No way!

So we decided to head back into the city centre, and find a bar! To use the Wifi....ugh, and maybe have a beer. Our plan was to search booking.com and pay what ever we needed to, so we didn't have to sleep in the park.

Getting there was pretty easy on the cycle paths, and very quickly, we were in the thick of town. I spotted a sign for a Chambre Du Hotes, (B&B type place), so we stopped to check it out. By this time, it was about 6:30pm and really cold. The B&B was locked, so we decided to just go into the little bar next door, have a beer and beg to use their Wifi. The luckiest thing we have done for ages.

FrogInBar, it is warm and cosy, and full of helpful people.

Valerie has owned the bar for 9yrs, and she seems to have some great locals.

FrogInBar, is a tiny, tiny bar, owned by a lovely lady called Valerie, who not only let us use her Internet, but got on her own phone busily trying to find us a pace to stay. Some locals came in while we're there, and she told them our story (none of the French people spoke English), we used Google Translate App lots, had more beers, the Pascal arrived to tell us he "might" have a room for us, just have to wait for his wife.

As a backup, I had found a place only 1km away on booking.com for $140, but Pascals wife came through with a little apartment 50mtrs away. Awesome, it's on the ground floor, bikes can go inside, has a washing machine, hot shower and comfy bed. Winners! We drank another beer, then said our very loud farewells and thank you's, and found our home. Will put some washing on, I had a shower, Will had a shower, we drank the bottle of wine we bought yesterday, and I passed out in bed. 

Our swish apartment for the night. So much better than the park would have been.

Another great adventure day, and I didn't have to stealth camp in the city park.