70 days on our bikes in Europe. Closing the loop.

Saarburg Germany. The Venice of the Saar region. That’s what they say anyway. I’m not sure one river through town makes it Venice, but it was one of those towns that’s not super promising as you roll in, and actually had a fascinating and beautiful old part of town. The 15km long Leukbach River runs through the charming old town and meets up with the Saar River.

Since we spend so much time on bikes we entertain ourselves talking about bikes and bike infrastructure quite a bit. A lot. Ok, constantly! We had to detour off the river path to obtain that giant pastry and once again we were reminded that although Germany knocks it out of the ball park with bike paths connecting towns, in town is a different story. It was quite inhospitable in Merzig, the short ride from the river path to Bäckerei & Café Tinnes had zero bike infrastructure. The contrast with France, where so many towns have been given what we call the French City 2.0 treatment in town, with new bike and ped lanes and markings and calmed traffic, was dramatic. It was not an environment that would encourage bicycle use for errands and transportation.

We were booked into Au Vieux Moulin hotel, in a former mill and with a highly rated restaurant. After hanging our wet cycling clothes over every available surface in our room we headed downstairs to dinner. We opted for a four course tasting menu with the wine pairing – get ready for loads of photos of food. With only a few weeks left in France it made sense to maximize our dining experience. This meal certainly fulfilled that desire. The most French of modern French meals we’ve had. We don’t dine at fancy restaurants often, but French fancy is more attractive to us since the service is very straightforward and not overwhelming. The French assume that everyone enjoys food, it’s not a big deal, just life.

Trying to pay attention to and write down the details of this meal gave me so much respect for actual food writers. Ground ivy, the waiter said, I dutifully wrote that down and only now looked it up: Glechoma hederacea is an aromatic, perennial, evergreen creeper of the mint family Lamiaceae. It is commonly known as ground-ivy, gill-over-the-ground, creeping charlie, alehoof, tunhoof, catsfoot, field balm, and run-away-robin. Thankfully I had snapped a picture of the full menu, since these courses, or sequences, are mostly represented on the menu.

We definitely needed a walk after that amazing meal, so we headed out into the misty moonlit night for a turn around town.

Somewhere along the wet roads of the previous day, hiding from the rain, we decided that we were both ready to wrap this tour up and head back to our home base in France. Rich plotted out the fastest and most direct route: ride to Strasbourg, train to Basel and overnight, train to Geneva, ride to Annemasse and then up the valley to our good friends’ house. We were both looking forward to being in one place for a while before traveling back to the US, so off we went.

We knew we’d be busy once we returned to the US, so a nice long 13 day break at our friends’ house was very appealing. The bike ride from Geneva to Annemasse is very easy, bike path the entire way, one night in Annemasse so we can ride up the valley after rush hour. It’s a great feeling of accomplishment to close our 70 day loop. We rode down the valley to start this tour, and now we ride up the valley to end the tour. In better shape, with even more appreciation of the countries we’ve visited, and looking forward to some days of rest.