[Solomon76]

I guess that you can say that I’ve caught the “Touring” bug as of late. After completing a ride from Stuttgart to Heidelberg, Germany last week, I quickly began planning my next long trip. After staring at a map for about half an hour, I decided that I would attempt to ride from Stuttgart, Germany into France. I spent another hour or so searching to routes on gpsies.com to see if anyone else had made the same trip or even parts of the trip. I found a route that someone had ridden from Karlsruhe to Stuttgart and a route that someone had ridden from Karlsruhe into France and back to Karlsruhe. I took those to routes and created a route from Stuttgart, Germany to Lauterbourg, France. My plan was to attempt the ride to France over the Independence Day weekend. However, I was bored when I woke up on Sunday morning. After trying to figure out what I could do, I decided about 8am that I would go ahead and attempt to ride to France. It took me a little over an hour to get dressed and get everything together that I was going to take on the trip. I ended up walking out my front door just before 10am.

I made it to Lauterbourg, France in just under 5 hours. The distance from my house was just over 67 miles. After spending a little over an hour in France, I crossed back over the border and caught the train from Karlsruhe back to Stuttgart. By the time I got to the train station in Karlsruhe, I was about 92 miles into the trip. By the time I got home from the train station near my house, I had ridden just over 94 miles for the day.

Below is the GPS summary of my trip from Stuttgart, Germany to Lauterbourg, France and some of the pictures I took during the ride. The rest of the pictures I uploaded from the ride can be viewed at the following link: https://s201.photobucket.com/albums/aa233/mlbrown_76/6 June 2010 Ride from Stuttgart to Lauterbourg/
<iframe width='465' height='548' frameborder='0' src='https://connect.garmin.com:80/activity/embed/35953003'></iframe>

 

[MB1]

Sure makes me want to go back to Germany!

 

[Ridgetop]

Wow, that's a nice ride. Freeway looks a little scary, but otherwise I would have loved to be there!

Also, don't you know that the only way to enter France from Germany is from the north through Belgium. Except you have to ride very fast. I think in Germany they call it the Blitz, or is that a pastry?

 

[Solomon76]

If you're refering to the freeway where the construction is taking place, I never had to ride down where the cars were. The trail I was on ran parallel with the freeway so I stopped and took a few pictures.

 

[majura]

Nice ride report.

NB: It's illegal to ride on the Autobahn. Although I hear it all the time on the traffic reports: "Drive carefully on the A2, cyclists on the Autobahn."

 

[Dave Hickey]

Very well done

 

[creekchub]

Pretty cool, thanks for the pics...

 

[rfrancisco]

I thought Woolworth went out of business here in the USA? The one in pic # 8 the store has stock in the windows. I was in Germany in 1999 to watch the TDF in Freiburg and Strasbourg France, great place for cycling.

 

[Solomon76]

I was very surprised to see a Woolworth, which is why I took the picture. I haven't seen a Woolworth since I was in high school. That one would have been open except for the fact that no department stores are open on Sunday in Germany.

 

[dahut]

After looking at all these pics, I'm guessing the folks in Germay havent heard about the tanked Euro?

 

[Solomon76]

As long as you don't travel abroad, it really doesn't matter what the exchange rate is. When I'm in the U.S. 1 dollar will buy me a cheeseburger at McDonalds everyday. If I was coming from Europe, that same cheesburger would have cost me 70 Euro cents a few months ago and 80 Euro cents right now.

 

[majura]

After looking at all these pics, I'm guessing the folks in Germay havent heard about the tanked Euro?

Solomon's right. A cheesburger from the golden arches cost €1 before, still costs the same now.

The people feeling the pinch right now are from Greece. Next up is Portugal, Spain, and Italy.

Germany is actually ok, however legislation passed last year that commits the government to reducing debt will be shortly effecting particular socio-economic groups (mainly poorer families). Germany doesn't need to do this: part of it is trying to lead by example, so that other € nations follow suit.