Ko2Ko – Breisach to Kehl am Rhein (Strasbourg)

Please note that the URL of this page is incorrect (it says Weil am Rhein to Kehl am Rhein). I was having a senior moment when I started the blog post and it can’t be changed now!

Here’s the overall progress map with Koblenz right at the top. I’m currently 220 miles from Koblenz following the Rhine cycle path.

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And here’s my route for today.

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I woke up at 6am and knowing that I had a long day’s cycling I got up early, breakfasted and left the hotel by 8:30am. The weather forecast was very positive!

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Here is Alfie ready for his luggage to be fixed on.

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I rode from Hochstetten (the little hamlet) into Breisach itself. It has a large lump of rock called Münster.

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There’s also a small harbour. The Rhine looked much less fierce today.

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Today’s official cycle route was 99% on dirt paths as usual. Here I am making my way to the beginning of the route – shared with walkers. I see loads of people out nordic walking on this tour!

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A cruise ship doing its stuff. I’d heard that cruise ships had been stopped because of the high water level so perhaps things were returning to normal.

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Here is Alfie at the km marker 233. I had just stopped to talk to a lady with two Irish Wolfhounds – they were enormous!

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By now I had ridden 8 miles and the day had turned very warm. I stopped to stretch my legs near Burkheim and look at where the Grand Canal d’Alsace splits off from the Rhein again – the cruise ship had gone to the left; not surprising when I discovered the right hand fork had a large weir!

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And then I was faced with this – cycle path closed due to flooding.

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I had a good look at my map and thought a reasonable diversion would be go to into Burkheim and then ride along the main road to Jechtingen and Sasbach, at which point the Rhein cycle route passes through Sasbach so I could rejoin it.

I had to go round a bit of a hill that had an impressive ruin on the top.

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Burkheim has hills either side it and turned out that I was now on a Wine Route with vineyards each side of the road.

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The roads were pretty much empty and about half of the few vehicles that passed me were tractors. I really enjoyed seeing some different scenery (vineyards) and the slight up and down of the hills was a bit of a change. Cycling on tarmac rather than dirt meant I could go faster and I enjoyed keeping a steady 14mph pace.

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At Sasbach I decided to keep to the main roads rather than the cycle path – my book showed me it was all packed dirt track and I preferred the smooth tarmac. I set some waypoints on my Garmin and rode through Whyl and Weisweil, sometimes on the road and sometimes on a cycle track alongside.

At 11am I arrived at Rheinhausen and decided it was time to stop for a snack. I stopped at the first bakery.

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There was a pretty large choice but I plumped for this cream on biscuit thingie.

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The lady serving in the bakery came to have a chat with me about what I was doing and then happily posed for a photograph.

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Then it was back on the road – I headed off again on the quiet, smooth main road towards Rust.

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I’d seen signs for something called Europapark on the road and assumed it was some kind of parkland or green space. Oh no it wasn’t!

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There were loads of rollercoasters and other interesting-looking things, as well as some unusual hotels. This was round the back of one of the hotels – a little taste of Rome!

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And I also found a Renault Twizy which Alfie posed with.

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I cycled through Rust and Keppel, Nonnenweier and then Ottenheim-Schwanau, at which point I realised I was pretty close to the cycle route and thought I might rejoin it for the rest of the route to Kehl. It was a two mile detour to get there – back at the river and all its signage!

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Hmmm, still 20 miles to Kehl – and I was feeling quite tired!

The Rhein definitely looked more blue and less brown than previously and seemed a bit lower. I was a bit underimpressed by the cycle track though – having ridden 10 miles on smooth roads the bumpy dirt and gravel was not enjoyable.

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There were a couple of barriers which I could cycle under no problems!

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After about three miles on the cycle track I realised I was getting pretty hungry and it was lunchtime. A quick look at the map showed me I had rather miscalculated – there were no villages on this route and no indications of food establishments. Argh! I’d have to go back inland a bit.

I had to cycle on to a gravel works near Meißenheim before I could get down off the cycle track.

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Meißenheim had an impressive church…

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But no bakery! I had to ride on to Ichenheim. I was feeling a bit cheesed off as I’d probably done a five mile detour for that stretch along the Rhein that was bumpy anyway!

Fortunately at Ichenheim I located a bakery and had a ham roll and a cuppa.

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It was really hot outside now (about 26 degrees) and I was really looking forward to getting to my hotel. I was a bit appalled, when starting the Garmin, to discover it thought the hotel was 15 miles away. Really? Oh well, I’d just have to keep those pedals turning a bit more.

The scenery today has been varied but pretty much always with the backdrop of these mountains.

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I was taking the main road route from Ichenheim up through Altenheim, Neuried, past Kittersburg, through Marlen and then to Kehl. The miles slowly counted down and then I got to a roundabout where my Garmin wanted me to go right but the road signs to Kehl said straight ahead, so I took the straight ahead route, the Garmin recalculated and knocked 4 miles off the total. Probably the Open Streetmaps map has a fault which suggests you can’t do that bit of road so it has to do a detour. Anyway, that was good news.

I was hot and thirsty and very relieved to arrived in Kehl at the hotel. I was a bit flummoxed by the hotel entry system (you check in with a electronic screen – it asks for a password which is your surname but I didn’t know this so had to phone the reception chappie). Anyway, the room was fine and, rather surprisingly, had a little kitchenette built in. Sadly no kettle!

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Here are my cycling statistics for today: imperial
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Metric
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And here is Alfie in the underground parking garage.

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I went for a little walk around Kehl – the hotel is just 100 metres from the pedestrian centre – and spotted this impressive church.

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I also spotted several Eiscafés; some were a bit pricey but this Schokoladenbecher was very good value and much needed!

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In the evening I went out for a pizza.

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I felt pretty tired all evening which is probably partly from the heat and the distance cycled so I’ve booked a hotel tomorrow in Rastatt which is only just over thirty miles away. That puts me one day behind my original schedule but that’s no problem as I’ve got plenty of time and I want to enjoy the scenery! I think 50 mile days are about the maximum in this heat anyway. Possibly the following day I will go the Germersheim/Speyer and the day after that Worms and then Mainz but we’ll see…

One comment

  1. Have good rest of trip up the Rhine, would have liked to join you for a couple of miles on the Rust segment, but I couldn’t organise a babyitter. Best wishes Garry Slater.

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