About : Europe

There are 3 very different parts to the ride. In Portugal, Spain, France, Switzerland and Germany you’re in modern western civilization all kinds of amenities and support – fine dining and **** hotels to budget inns. You ride on nice, paved secondary streets, and especially in Germany, on a lot of spectacular bike paths. Crossing into eastern Europe, (Czech Republic and Poland) the roads are about the same, but the seleciton of accoodations goes down outside of the major cities. In Belarus and Russia the road selection and hotel selection outside of major cities goes way down – get support or bring camping gear.

Basel, CH 0k/0m

europe2003 PII, Day 6
19June03, 0km/0 miles
Basel, CH

Break Day! What to do when you don’t have to ride a bike 90 miles? Well, first off, everyone slept late – some of us very late. Sylvie, Lisa and Steve went into the gardens for tea and yoga.

Dave and Charlie wandered around and ended up jumping into the Rhein River (no kidding) where the water was cold and the current fast. (Those two dots in the river are them.)

It’s a big river.

Sylvie, Susie and Lisa toured the social milieu of today’s Basel, and sat at a café and read magazines and answered emails.

Bob went off by himself to find the meeting point of the borders of Switzerland, France and Germany, which is actually in the middle of the river, and to the Beyler Museum which had the largest exhibit of Impressionist art ever gathered in Switzerland – the entire history of the genre from Matisse, Monet and Van Gogh through Picasso to Max Ernst and Andy Warhol. No pictures were allowed.

We did our pre-dinner gathering in the hotel gardens again. You can tell Bob and Dave are brothers.

Then it was dinner overlooking the Rhine. Lots of “Baselians: think it’s fun to float down this river, even after the sun goes down. (Pictures of this available)

Charlie left dinner for a bit, and then we noticed him standing on a nearby bridge, contemplating the leap for another dip.

We split up again after dinner, some of us amusing them oueselves by phone booth cramming, but as they could find no phone booth to cram into, tried for a photo booth.

The riding is actually quite challenging. The break day was too short but we all enjoyed exploring Basel – really a very special city. Now it’s up at 6:30A, breakfast at 7, and off into Germany tomorrow at 7:30A.

No bio today…

Subscribe to email updates from Bob