Europe Day 20: 43 Miles

Keskastel, France to Ensdorf, Germany

Today was what I’d call an active recovery day. I wanted to put in a ride that would get my legs moving, but not be strenuous in any way. The last 2 days were hard with each day clocking in at over 6 hours of riding. 43 miles of flat bike path was the perfect way to move forward while also giving my body a chance to recover from the 140 miles I put in over the prior 2 days.

I started the morning by trying to check out of the hotel. When I arrived at the hotel yesterday, they had given me a room and a key, but no one ever checked me in or took any of my information. Most places I’ve stayed at have at least wanted my name and address along with my passport number. When I went to leave this morning, I wasn’t sure what the checkout procedure was. There is no reception desk because the hotel is mainly a restaurant with just a few rooms on the second floor. I found a woman behind the bar and asked her if I could pay. She didn’t speak a word of English, but we were able to figure everything out with some hand gestures and google translate.

I started riding but stopped about a mile later to pick up breakfast at a grocery store. Today was going to be a short ride, so I only needed to pick up food for breakfast. I got a 2 pack of apple turnovers for €1.35, a Powerade, and a banana. The last few grocery stores I’ve been to have been great for breakfast because they sell pastries in packages of 2. This solves the issue I had in Italy where a single pastry was never enough. Powerade is also affordable again which is nice. I couldn’t understand the economics of Powerade pricing in Switzerland. A 50cl bottle (about 16 ounces) was usually between €2.50 and €3.00. This was up from the normal €0.75 to €1.00 that I saw in Italy. Now back in France the Powerade was €0.92. Interestingly, Powerade is a Coke product and the price of a Coke held constant between Italy and Switzerland. Either way I was just happy to buy a Powerade without feeling ripped off.

After leaving the grocery store, I followed a bike path which lead me to the Saar River where I spent the entire day. Based on the elevation profile I knew there would be no hills so I could probably sustain a 13 to 14 mile per hour pace. That would make for a day just over 3 hours. Around hour 2 I passed through the city of Saarbrücken which is the capital city of Saarland, a state of Germany. I hadn’t even noticed a sign or anything that marked I had crossed the border. Around this time, I felt the winds picking up. I had looked at a weather report before I started riding and knew there was a potential for thunderstorms in the afternoon. I decided not to venture into Saarbrücken and finished out my ride to the town of Ensdorf before any rain.

I got to Ensdorf around 12:45 and stopped at a döner kebab place for lunch. I got a giant kebab sandwich with fries and a coke and sat outside to eat. Just as I was finishing my meal, I saw some dark clouds coming in overhead and felt the first drops of rain. Luckily, I was around the corner from my hotel and arrived there just before any rain. My day ended much like it began except this time I was struggling with a language barrier to check into a hotel rather than to check out of one. My German in the afternoon was just as bad as my French in the morning, but I was able to get myself checked in to a nice room. The day ended early and I certainly could have ridden another 20 to 30 miles. Booking the hotel room before I started the ride forced me to stop which is exactly what I wanted. The cumulative mileage was starting to wear on my legs, so a short recovery day is helpful in the long run. Tomorrow I will end my short stay in Germany and head to Luxembourg.

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Musings:

• What is with the square European bed pillows? I’ve seen them in the last few places I’ve stayed and find them to be very awkward to sleep on. They also take up way too much space on the bed. I’ve always been under the impression that pillows of this size and shape were for decoration purposes. I can’t wait for a normal rectangle pillow again.