Europe Day 19: 60 Miles

Strasbourg, France to Keskastel, France

Today was a tough one mostly due to the heat. Temperatures went above 90 degrees which made what would have been an easy 60 mile ride a bit harder. I was prepared for the high temperature and completed the ride, although slower than I would have liked.

Before leaving Strasbourg, I stopped at the grocery store in town to pick up food for breakfast and lunch. The grocery store in Strasbourg was only open between 9 AM and noon. Most of the stores and restaurants are closed or only open for limited hours on Sunday in this part of France. I had looked ahead for today’s route and noticed all the grocery stores outside of Strasbourg were closed until Monday. Most of the restaurants on the route were not open for lunch. This is where planning ahead and knowing the route before setting out on a ride comes in handy. I knew I needed food and water with me at the start of the day to last me until the end. I picked up a 2 pack of chocolate croissants and a powerade for breakfast. I also bought a sandwich, small flatbread pizza, and box of 6 stroopwaffles. I filled my 2 water bottles up and filled my reserve water bladder with an additional 1.5 liters of water. The food and water weighed me down to start the day, but I was happy I had all of it with me.

Once I got out of Strasbourg it was back to riding along side a canal. I had a slight downhill coming into Strasbourg but a slight uphill leaving town. The canal has a system of locks to allow boats to travel through it. Each lock is about 10 feet high, so I knew I was going slightly uphill because I was continuously passing the locks along the way. I rode along the canal for 15 miles and then was back into riding along some farmland.

Riding along the canal had lulled me into a false sense of flat terrain, but once I got out on the farmland I had some climbing to do. The top of the first climb of the day took me to 1,100 feet elevation around mile 26. I had started the day at 400 feet. The climb wasn’t all that hard, but it was starting to get hot and I could already feel my energy draining. I decided to stop at the top of the climb to eat my sandwich and 2 stroopwaffels. I also transferred my backup water into my water bottles because I had already finished off most of the water in my bottles. It was nice to get back on my bike after the short break and have a downhill. My food and water had been stored in the 2 front paniers on my bike, so eating and moving the water to the bottles also made my bike feel lighter and easier to handle.

I reached the town of Saverne around mile 35 and found myself back on the canal for a short stretch. I was riding on the shady side of the canal and took a 15 minute break in the shade just to let my body temperature drop. I could feel myself starting to overheat, and without cold water the only way to cool down is to take a break in the shade. After my break I continued another 6 miles along the canal to the town of Lutzelbourg. There was a street fair going on in town and I saw an ice cream stand just before I was about to make a turn to start my next climb. I stopped for a vanilla and strawberry ice cream cone and ate it in the shade before starting the 3 mile climb from Lutzelbourg to Phalsbourg.

It was another 20 miles from Phalsbourg to my endpoint in Keskastel. I went slightly off route and found myself on more of a main road that had some long steep downhills followed by equally long and steep uphills. I hate this kind of riding because the uphills feel very difficult, but the downhills never feel long enough to recover from the uphill. By this point the temperature was above 90 degrees and I had half a bottle of water left. I knew I would make it to Keskastel but struggled to stay focused. I arrived in Keskastel around 3:45 and stopped at the hotel and restaurant L’Alsace. The restaurant did not open until 6:00 and there didn’t seem to be anyone there to check me in to the hotel. I decided to wait it out, knowing there was a place to camp a mile down the road if the hotel fell through. Around 5:00 a woman pulled up to the restaurant and I tried to communicate to her that I would like a room. After a few miscommunications we got it all figured out. The room was not ready, but she offered me a coffee and a place to sit while I waited. I tried to ask for a water instead, but that got lost in translation. A hot coffee was not really what I wanted with it being 90 degrees outside, but I was so thirsty that I drank it anyway.

It felt great to get into the hotel room and take a cold shower. I’ve ridden in heat much worse than I experienced today, but it is always a shock to the body the first couple of days with 90 degree temperatures. There isn’t much in Keskastel, so I will have a quick dinner at the restaurant and then try relax with a movie tonight.

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Musings:

• Netflix content changes every time I cross a border. I haven’t been watching much TV, but I’ve watched the occasional show on Netflix when I have the opportunity. I downloaded a couple of shows and movies onto my laptop before I left the United States, but even with them downloaded to my computer I am only allowed to watch the shows if they are available in the country I’m currently in. This morning I opened Netflix for the first time in France and found the movie “Booksmart” available. This movie came out in theaters in the U.S. last week so I was surprised it was already on Netflix. I guess since it is not being distributed in theaters in France, Netflix has bought the streaming rights. It seems to be very complicated, but I at least have a movie to watch tonight.
• Google Lens has been a life saver at restaurants. It’s nice to have the ability to take a picture of a menu and have it automatically translated to English. It may take me longer than a fluent speaker to figure out what I want, but I at least don’t have to be the annoying American asking for someone to translate a menu for me.