Hot! It is supposed to reach 103° today. The hourly forecast shows 90° by noon. This is a too hot for riding in the sun. We had hoped to sleep in a bit, until 7:00 am, this morning, but when I checked the updated forecast at 5:15 am and saw the rapid rate of hearing this morning I woke Sally and we got ready to go. We had 23 miles to cycle, from Saltz, France to Karlsruhe, Germany. Last night, we booked a room with air conditioning in town based on the 99° we saw in the forecast. Now that it has been raised to 103°, we will be happy to be indoors today. We should be at the hotel by 10:30 am this morning. Hopefully, they will give us a room early so we can get out of the heat.
Our route takes us on the French side of the river, until we cross into Germany. It is goodbye France. We won't see her again until we head for Paris to fly home, sometime in September.
When we got to the gate to exit the campground, about 6:30 am, we found it locked. With the help of another camper, we were able to wiggle our bikes through the turnstile type gate.
At about mile 15, we reached the ferry that would take us across the river. When we were still miles away from the crossing, we hoped the wait for the ferry would not be too long. We did not want to be stuck sitting in the sun, the day heating up, while waiting for the boat. As we approached the landing, we saw the boat on our side of the river. We rode onto the deck of the boat and 10 seconds later we were gliding across the river. So much for a wait!
On the other side, we headed north on the road on top of the dike. In 2.5 miles we reached the town of Rappenwort, home of a huge water park. Rappenwort is really a suburb of Karlsruhl. We turned west from here and soon were riding through a park or green space that cuts through the middle of the city. In 4 miles, we were at the central train station. A quick stop for fruit at a fruit stand and we rode the last quarter mile to our hotel.
Wearing her bike helmet, Sally approached the front desk, hoping we could get into our room at 10:30 am instead of the advertised 3:00 pm. She emerged a few minutes later, room key in hand.
The rest of the day was a vacation from our vacation. No riding. We just lazed around our room, enjoying the coolish room. We did manage to rouse ourselves enough to go out to lunch in a downtown bar, and I made a quick trip to a grocery store, but other than that, we lazed the day away.
We had hoped to ride to Speyer, Germany tomorrow, but there was not a single room available. There is a city celebration Saturday, Speyer's Cheese Days, accounting for the dirth of rooms. We decided to extend our vacation from our vacation another day and stay again in Karlsruhe, although we have to switch hotels. This one is booked solid tomorrow night. Sunday night rooms are available in Speyer. We will ride there starting Sunday morning. The high Sunday is predicted to reach 95°. We will stick to our early morning wanderings.
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