Wednesday, September 16

From	To	Distance (km)	Average Speed (km/hr)	Max Speed (km/hr)	Odometer (km)	Riding Time (hr:min:sec)	Push-Ups
Guenterstal, Germany	Illzach, France	69.98	16.4	35.7	613	4:14:54	200

(531 words)

Riding to France

This morning Matt and I decided to try and find an internet cafe in Freiburg before heading for France. We ended up at an "Internet Gallerie" named Equinoxe, where we spent the next five hours being computer nerds. At Equinoxe I went through my e-mail, typed in the rest of my next JavaWorld article, and worked on this trip web site.

Finally at around 3PM, Matt and I left the internet for the real world, and began riding our bikes towards France. The weather and geography were kind to us, as it didn't rain except for one short sprinkle and our route was mostly flat or downhill.

As we left Freiburg, we rolled through some beautiful hilly countryside, through fields and small towns. Our route took us (mostly downhill) through Wittnau, Soelden, Bollschweil, Kirchhofen, and Bad Krozingen. The landscape then flattened out as we rode through Bremgarten, Grissheim, and Zienken to Neuenberg, where we crossed a bridge over the Rhine into France.

Once in France, we rode through two small villages, Chalampe and Bantzenheim, and then headed due west. After Bantzenheim we travelled by map and compass, because there were no signs to tell us where the roads we took were heading.

At one point we came to an intersection of five small roads. Since most of the roads at this intersection had no sign stating what we might find if we travelled down the road, we once again studied our map and compass. We soon realized that the road we were planning to take was marked by a sign that said in three languages: "Do not enter. Shooting taking place. Risk of death." After some serious discussion, we decided to go for it. Rather than make a long detour to avoid the potential gunfire, we took the road marked "Risk of Death."

Although it turned out the area was probably used occasionally for military exercises, our initial interpretation was that the area was used for hunting. So to let any hunter know we weren't a duck, wild boar, or deer, we sang songs or otherwise made noise as we rode. Because we thought we might get shot at anyway if the hunters knew we were foreigners, we tried to sing any French songs we could think of. In the end, however, we made it through without a single shot fired.

As we emerged from the shooting range, we arrived in Baldersheim. After Baldersheim we rode through Sausheim to Illzach. Upon arrival in Illzach, we asked at a gas station for directions to the road where our friend Valérie lived, and found out it was just around the corner. We found Valérie's apartment building promptly, but because we spent so much time on the internet in Freiburg, we didn't arrive at Valérie's until about 8 PM.

Riding into France was quite pleasant, as the sunset was beautiful and we were riding mostly west. The infrastructure felt immediately different after we crossed from Germany into France. Our route in France took us on thin roads that went through fields and forests. Once we arrived at Valérie's, we all sat down to a dinner featuring Quiche Lorrain, which Valérie had prepared for us.