Walking in Europe

New photos added to galleries also!

September 10…Well… now that I have wifi again (and hope to get a French SIM card organized tomorrow!), I can update readers on the progress! I’m writing this at about 11pm after the first day of the WFW route with fellow riders. To get to the “trailhead” at Pfetterhouse, I spent yesterday navigating out of Basel NE to the border crossing at Saint-Louis. Swiss-German became French and Swiss Francs were now Euros! It was about a 50km ride but included three low passes and a bit of trouble with google maps (not following my own advice: always have a paper map with you!!). The ride was gorgeous though: rolling hills, farmland in the valley bottoms, upland hardwood forests on the passes, beautiful villages like Hagenthal-le-Bas, Vieux-Ferrette, Mooslargue. Arrived late afternoon to Seppois-le-Haut (camping!), close enough to ride over to Pfetterhouse in the morning to meet the other riders.

September 11… early start to get over to Pfetterhouse to make sure I didn’t miss the rendezvous (still no cell of wifi to check messages!)… and was happy to get a call from Tom this morning with their ETA. Everyone converged on Pfetterhouse for one last coffee (found a place open!) before setting off on the 62 km ride to Gruebwiller where I’m writing from. It was a fabulous day: meeting new (er..long lost?) relatives from the Gillespie side of the family and making new friends. No rain today and not too hot, the ride took us mostly on “velo paths” and very little auto routes; and again through fields of corn at harvest stage, and vineyards as we finished the day at the foot of the Vosges. A big difference today was starting to see many memorials and remnants of the Western Front along the route. Tomorrow is the climbing day and the goal is 90+ kms.

Note: the Frontcycling trip has a new FB page. Check it out at “Cycling the Western Front Way”