Diary written by: Bernt Pölling-Vocke ( bernty@gmx.com )

The best news of the day up front: the under-100-kilometer stage finally happened! And the bad news: the day wasn´t really that great...

After the best breakfast-buffet of the tour (if you leave the fact out that the buffet shuts down at 9:30) we rolled out of Karlsruhe around 11 am. 15 Kilometers on the road we ran into a couple from Hannover and the cycling got pretty entertaining due to the fact that we had some nice talks with them for the next couple of kilometers. At first I thought that Frank wanted to pass the two just as we had passed other cyclists before but their speed looked fine to me and I was glad that we had some people to cycle with even if it was only for a short while. Both studied german and history at the university of Hannover and were on the first day of their first bike-tour. After 30 kilometers we all of the sudden ran into a french flag standing around in the middle of nothing and to my suprise we already cycled into France. I guess I knew deep in my brain that this would happen today since our destination was Strassbourg but I also know that I had not realized that we were about to leave Germany today.

Even more suprisingly the fun also made it´s first appearance of the day right at the border and Frank´s prediction seems to become true since he had said last night that we would have our first sunny stage of the tour today. We had left Karlsruhe when the clouds started to move in but I guess the clouds have to move somewhere and as long as they are leaving us alone I don´t mind them too much. But as we all know shit sometimes happens and roughly 10 minutes after Frank´s prediction seemed to be right on the mark the rain finally caught us big time. The couple from Hannover wasn´t as lucky as we were with the first rain on the fourth day of the journey but since their first day also happened to be our fourth day they had a wet start and we had a wet awaking. The end of the dreamweather (well, "dreamweather" is only true when you take the weather reports into account that had predicted nothing but rain, rain and more rain all the way everywhere).

45 kilometers into today´s (by now) wet stage we left the Rhine and the couple from Hannover in order to cycle a straight line to Straßbourg. It drizzled and rained almost all the time and by the time we got to a small village called Beinheim we were in the mood for a nice break and some food. Of course it was once again after 2 pm and all restaurants (all two) had closed for the afternoon so we just kept on going. I just know that I was really glad that I had not only a raincoat but also raintrousers which I didn´t have last year.

The already very exciting combination of small highways, rain and a rather boring scenery got even worse after we had finished the 50th kilometer of today´s stage. All of the sudden all hell broke loose and the rain started pouring down on us and with no town in sight and nothing but some trees here and there around there was nothing we could do but cycling. It really felt like a deja-vu or a move back to our tour to Paris last year: you have an ocean in your shoes, the sunglasses are getting fogged, the waterproofed rainclothes turn out to be not all that perfect, sweat starts to pour, actually it would feel just great if I would know that there is an end to this just around the corner with fresh clothes and a shower but at that moment I didn´t even really know how far Straßbourg was.

10 kilometers later and soaked pretty good we arrived in Auenheim were we decided to stop until the rain would ease off. All restaurants and bars were closed but I also don´t think that we would have been welcomed customers anywhere so we just sat down in a dry spot in front of a restaurant just across the street from the Hotel de Ville (city hall). I also got me some dry clothes out of my luggage and already imagined me drying clothes with the hairdryer in the evening again (just like last year).

Half an hour and 10 chocolate-bars that I had taken from the breakfast buffet later we got going again. It was only drizzling and even this stopped about 15 kilometers later so that we cycled into Straßbourg with the first prolongued great weather of the day.

We stopped for some photos at the european parliament and continued into the old city where we found a nice and expensive little hotel just right around the corner from the cathedral. 60 marks a night and no breakfast-buffet had to be okay, on the other side the location couldn´t have been any better right in the interesting part of town. While Frank took a look at our room and arranged everything with the hotel I had a little chat with an american tourist who had just stopped for some days in Straßbourg on his way to the Rhine and some relatives in Bremen. He was already looking forward to a boat-trip on the Rhine and I could imagine him in the middle of all the other japanese and american tourists we had seen the last couple of days at the touristical centers of the Rhine. Later on he also wanted to visit Munich and Rome, all in all it sounded like a very nice trip.

The franksche Fehlerquotient was acceptable today. 84.5 kilometers were planned for the stage, 92.3 stood on the speedometer when the bikes went into their parking position at the hotel. Things are improving...

2nd entry of the day:

Shortly after 11 pm and just after a great boat-trip around the inner-city of Straßbourg (hey, we´re tourists, too) we got back to the hotel. Straßbourg might not be compareable to cities like Paris but when you love architecture there is a lot of interesting old stuff to see. There are also very nice canals around the inner-city, tons of very inviting restaurants and an acceptable number of tourists so make sure to stop by when you´re in the area. Our boat-trip took about 90 minutes and was definetly worth the money even though it would take half as long if they would invest some money into better sluices for the canals. Only the "impressive" new european parliament seems kind of odd with all the great old stuff around. For me it´s more or less a meaningless monument and a huge waste of money but  every period of history needs it´s buildings to show off with. At least it´s not as meaningless as the pyramids in Egypt but I think that not a whole lot more gets done inside the parliament then in most tombs. The building might be considered as "art" by some people, I think it´s just what money buys you when you have too much of it and no clue how to use it for wise investments.

Prior to the boat-tour we ate at a great italian restaurant. Frank had his pasta, I had my pizza and everybody was happy. The weather was also great all evening and the weather-report predicts rain for tomorrow. I guess that means that everything will happen but rain, at least if the weather-reports stay as accurate as they were until now.

We also had the magic fourth day of the tour today. Maybe it was due to the stage that saw no higher climbs than a bridge over the Rhine or due to the shorter overall distance in comparison to the first three days but I really feel physically great this evening. The rain turned today´s stage into a psychological challenge but maybe with three more days of rain one will also get used to that so that we can start cycling 255 kilometers a day no matter how many thunderstorms are around us in about 2 1/2 hours from day seven on. One can get used to everything I guess (hope, wish)...

Chess statistics:        Bernt vs Frank         0:4