Strasbourg: We had a wonderful time walking around charming Strasbourg. We climbed 320 steps to the roof of the cathedral (I was huffing and puffing and Sandy was breathing as if she’d been reading a book) and then gorged on a delicious lunch at a restaurant where we were the only English speakers.
What a wonderful city! It’s filled with half-timbered houses, twisting alleys, phenomenal bakeries, and, as far as I could tell, very pleasant people who, even if they don’t speak much English, try their best to be helpful.
Black Forest: Today Sandy and I took a phenomenal E-bike tour into the Black Forest. We biked 25 miles with an elevation gain of 1200 feet. It was a good workout even with the electronic assist. The ride began on a trail paralleling the Rhine. We biked past fields of feathery asparagus plants as well as corn, potatoes, tobacco and sunflowers. We stopped for delicious pastries and coffee at a place with fantastic creations made of pumpkins and gourds. Then we rode through a vineyard and, finally, climbed high into the mountains to a working farm filled with geese, a charming chapel built by the farmer, and glasses of reinvigorating and restorative schnapps.
Basel: All magical trips must come to an end, and ours terminated on a cold, determinedly raining day in Basel, just over the Swiss border. We splashed through the downtown, which seemed big city-ish, then left for the airport without getting a real feel for the place.
PuffinlessTravel 