wheelieharro: (Temporary Backup) Day 11- Baume to Mulhouse- 110.1 kms

We started the day a little later this morning with some overnight rain making an early start a little harder to take with wet roads and bike paths. The weather was also a little colder with temperatures around 13-15 for most of the day and some light rain at various times

The ride was mostly on bike paths alongside canals and rivers. We started out on the Doubs river and later tranvered to the Allen and the Bourbeuse. The rivers traveled through the valleys of a fairly large mountain range. Later we picked up the Rhone - Rhine canal on the downside to the Rhine river which was a thrilling ride into our destination at Mulhouse. Got to wonder about the canal system in France and the engineering involved.

Today was probably our quickest ride although we had a morning tea break and longer lunch at Montbeliard hoping to find a library to use a computer to have ANOTHER try at downloading the Europe maps on my Garmin....alas the

Libraries were shut. We had a good lunch firstly of fresh fruit ( strawberry’s , cherries, nectarines and peaches) followed by a baguette and raspberry tart.... gee you eat a lot when riding!!!!

We arrived at Mulhouse at about 4.00 pm and we are staying in a house hosted by a Warm Showers couple who we contacted a couple of days ago. Dinner being provided for us so we will buy some wine and a box of chocolates as gifts

I am hoping that our hosts can help we with the downloading on my Garmin as it seems that they are cyclists .... any everything is crossed ( and I mean everything!!!) that this will put this saga “ to bed”.

We are sitting in a cafe now doing blogs and planning the next few days until our Warm Showers host is home from work. Chris has just advised that we have done 789 kms so far on the ride with an average of 99 kms per day (based on days we have actually ridden) . We have also climbed about 4500 metres so far.....not bad for a couple of old blokes!!

We stayed the night with the first Warm Showers with our host Stefan who was delightful. His flat inin central Mulhouse and we had the opyof washing our clothes in a washing machine....as opposed to the base of the shower!!!

Stefan prepared a wonderful meal of pasta which we all enjoyed.

Whilst we tried unsuccessfully to download the Garmin maps we had a really great chat about the rides that Stefan and his partner , Jessica, had through South America, New Zealand and Asia... all great stories....

Now for the photos

Early morning ride along the Doubs through the valleys

Nice shot of a typical waterfall

Nice building in Montbeliard near where we purchased fresh fruit

Town Hall ( Marie) in central Montbeliard

We saw these km marking points when we first joined the official Eurovelo 6 Route on the Loire and wondered where the start point was.... here it is in the middle of nowhere on an bridge the crosses the Bourbeause!

Funny what takes your fancy...