On the road again! It feels like real life now. As always, the bike path was hard to find from the city, but led us along the canal of the Bruche river to the foothills of the Vosges at Wassalone, then the hills started with gentle climbs up to Obersteigen, past the magnifique Rocher de Dabo with a church perched high on a plateau of red sandstone, overlooking the Col de Valsberg and the valleys cleverly named by the Germans Grossthal and Kleinthal. A nice swoopy downhill followed before the 2-fleche-worthy but unmarked climb to Hommert and Walscheid and more swoops to Abreschviller for refreshments and on to St Quirin. This town is another of the Most-Beautiful-Villages-in-France with stone buildings the colour of, though hopefully not the dissolvibility of the sandstone. Also lots of new wooden chalets built with the windfall of the huge storm of 1999.
A nice first day on the road, away from moaning Aussies and busy city streets with only minor sunburn and bum burn.
Dinner tonight at our Bib-rouge restaurant then an early start tomorrow to get over Col du Donon (1000m) before the predicted afternoon thunderstorms. We'll probably stay in tiny Ban-de-Laveline, close to St Die des Vosges.
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