Switzerland

This is Kenzie.
This is one of our unbelievable hikes.
This is Chrissy with Mary K, Kenzie's mother.

Switzerland

These are some cool looking things at a market in Bern Switzerland.
This is in Bern.
This is where we stayed with our good friends Kenzie and Mandel Kaufmann. They live in this house in Grindelwald. Grindelwald is a small town nestled between the intense peaks of the Swiss Alps not far from Interlaken.
Chrissy is standing in front of the door to the guest room were we stayed.

From Low to High

Days 6 and 7 as we rode our bikes to Switzerland.

Nothing like the quaint, colorful, flowering, straight beautiful villages and vineyards of Alsace to lift the spirits. So much fun biking through these little towns that you don't mind the hills you may have to climb to get to them. This post covers two days, but there's not a lot to say. Chrissy and I were sort of speechless during the whole experience.
That is until approximately one hour after this picture was taken, when I needed Chrissy to say yes to a rather important question.

She did.

Here's a video we showed at the wedding. At 6:42 into the video, after all the sappy hey look at us we're in love, stuff you can watch France Bike Trip 3 of the trilogy (it's called paris2switz.blogspot.com) Then it goes back to the wedding. You can just drag the cursor to 6:42. No, seriously it's bad.

The Low Point

After enjoying Strasbourg for most of the day we got back on our bikes pretty late. It was about 5 pm. We wanted to visit Germany since we were so close. So we mapped out a course through some small German villages and would plan on arriving back on the French side where we knew there was a Campground at a town called Rhinau. Germany was fun because we realized very quickly that we didn't know a single word of German. Asking people for directions became interesting. But we got along. I noticed that a lot of the houses in Germany have a standard size and shape. The brown Stick work on white is also a very popular color scheme. Another difference was that all the highways seemed to have bike paths next to them.

It was getting later and later and I was getting tired and grouchy. Poor Chrissy was trying to keep my spirits up. I wasn't doing all that well. I was tired and cold and ready to be in the tent. That's when we thought we were at the low point. I could see a light ahead and knew we were close to the Rhine river and that just on the other side we would find our camp. Unaware, we soon realized that there was no bridge, but only a ferry that doesn't run at 12 midnight. After the conference at the mound, we decided the only thing to do would be to backtrack a solid 30 km to take the other crossing. It was 2 am when we found our campground. It was 1 am when a cold, windy rain started. We had to take a picture.

The Sabbath

We got all the way to Metz to find out the next morning that the train we were planning to take to strasbourg in time for church did not accommodate bikes. So instead we had to find the church there in Metz. The irony was that the one family I wanted to see at church in Strasbourg was visiting Metz this week. This is sister Lanoux. I was also able to regain contact with another family I'd been seeking as well. The Lord was with us and our righteous desires.

We did catch the afternoon train to Strasbourg which began the Alsatian part of our trip. Alsace is a region of France situated next to Germany. There are German influences in the architecture and the food. On Monday we ate a Choucroute which is random parts of the pig laid atop a pile of sauerkraut. And our favorite, Tarte Flambee which is like a thin crust pizza with sour creme instead of red sauce.

Day 4

Day 4 began with a trip to the grocery store to stock up on our main staples of baguette, cheese, biscuit cookies, Orangina, and water. We also stopped at the Boulangerie for our favorite breakfast, Pain au Chocolat and other french pastries. Then we were on our way to Verdun. When we arrived in Verdun we were tired and exhausted but happy to have lunch in our sacks.

Our goal was to be to Strasbourg for Church on Sunday. It was already Saturday afternoon. I guess we decided we weren't quite tired enough because we decided to bike another 50 miles to Metz before hitching a ride on the train to Strasbourg. Even though we were in a hurry we still had time for this little old man and his apples.

By avoiding hills and having a little wind at our back, we made great time. The sun set and it was dark dark. About 15 km away from Metz we asked a group of boisterous people where we might find a Campground close to Metz. His name was Daniel and I can't remember the rest, but they invited us in for drinks and cookies. Hey more cookies! They also let us use their Internet. Daniel was intensely energetic, he collects antiques and is a Train Conductor or Engineer we call them. He's super excited for is retirement at 50. He's doing it sooner than expected because the new right winged President Sarkozy is planning to take away early retirement altogether.
They did help us find our camp ground.