Mulhouse, France to Hohentengen am Hochrhein, Germany: Cycling in Three Countries in One Day
15-16 August 2019
Mulhouse, France to Möhlin, Switzerland (15 August 2019, 62 km, 38.5 mi)
Shortly after leaving Mulhouse, we entered the Hardt Forest, which runs along the French side of the Rhine River. In open areas, the route was bordered by lots of blackberry bushes, and the berries were just starting to ripen. It reminded us of our trip through Idaho last summer, when there were sweet, juicy blackberries along the TransAmerica route. We stopped to enjoy some of the berries, before continuing on our way.
A sweet treat along the cycle route. Rixheim, France. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
There are so many cycling routes that come together here, it will make your head spin. Luckily, it looks like all roads lead to Basel. That’s where we’re headed, too. Kembs, France. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
In Rosenau, France, the trail was lined with dozens of gorgeous wildlife photos. Look, on the right. There’s a puffin! Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
30 km into the ride, we reached Huningue, the very last town we would pass through in France. Just upstream, the Rhône-to-Rhine Canal came to an end, where it empties into the Rhine River. We stopped at a picnic table overlooking the Rhine River in Huningue, for one last lunch in France. The Rhine is quite wide, deep, and appears to have a swift current through here. Across the river, just a short bike ride away, is Switzerland.
We came across the world’s biggest bike chain ring, in Huningue, France. That would be handy on some of those long down hills. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
Crossing the Rhine River, Huningue, France. On the right is France. On the left are Germany and Switzerland. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
After crossing the Rhine, we had a very short stint in Germany (about 550 m, or a third of a mile) before entering Switzerland at the city of Basel. There are no “welcome to Germany” or “Switzerland” signs to be found, anywhere.
However, there was an immigration checkpoint at the Swiss border that caught us off guard. We thought that since Switzerland was part of the Schengen Visa Zone, there wouldn’t be any border controls. But a Swiss border agent waved us down as we were about to ride by and decided he would grill us. He asked: “Where are you from?” We responded: “the United States”. And he said: “I don’t believe you.”
Uh-oh. It’s not great when border control agent doesn’t believe what you are saying. Somehow, in a brief, adrenaline-filled moment, we guessed that he had mangled the English a little, and really meant “where did you come from today?” On our second try to answer his question we managed to come up with the correct answer (Mulhouse) which, believe it or not, is sometimes difficult to remember when you are in a different town every night. He then proceeded to ask where we were going, how long we would be in the Schengen Zone, and other questions that are normally easy for a typical tourist, but can be little more difficult for us. Finally he asked about our passports. But he appeared to be getting a little bored by now, and decided not to make us dig them out when we told him they were buried in our panniers. Eventually, he decided we seemed harmless and let us through. Hopefully, there won’t be more hassles like that at other border crossings.
The Swiss flag, flying at the border crossing between Germany and Basel, Switzerland. A border agent there caught us off guard by deciding to grill us about our travel plans. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
The waterfront section of Basel that we rode through was very industrial and urban. Along the way, there were some interesting views of old buildings on the other side of the Rhine. We also passed a couple of gorgeous drinking fountains, topped with fanciful sculptures of dragons.
A tiny pedestrian ferry worked its way back and forth across the Rhine River, tethered to a cable that kept the little boat from washing downstream. Basel, Switzerland. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
After passing through Basel, we rode for short stretches in both Switzerland and Germany for the rest of the day. We’ve now traveled through six different countries on this trip (seven if you count Scotland and England separately).
Thankfully, there were no more border checkpoints. Everything feels much more modern here than it did in France. We stopped at a grocery store in Baden Germany to get a drink, and were impressed by the selection of foods compared to the stores in France.
Between us, we know even less German than French. Although some words are familiar (like danke or gesundheit), most are not. We are lucky a lot of people speak English. But it’s also fun to start learning a few new words, like radweg (bike trail) and zeltplatz (campground).
When we arrived at the campground in Möhlin, the manager told us we were the first Americans to visit so far this year. It’s true that Americans are very scarce along the EuroVelo routes. Thinking about it, we couldn’t remember seeing any others during our entire trip.
We were kind of disappointed in how the campground looked. The tent camping area was a lawn right in the center of a small village of rundown, semi-permanent, mobile homes. Both car campers and cyclists were crammed together on the lawn, with no shade. Fortunately it was mostly cloudy, so the lack of shade wasn’t as big of a hassle as it might have been. But the space does feel crowded.
On the bright side, the bathrooms had very nice showers, with some perks we never saw in France, like a soap holder in the shower, a high quality shower head, and water that stayed on (without having to keep pushing a button). The wifi is also really good. Amazing! Almost all the campgrounds we’ve stayed in have advertised that they have wifi, but it hardly ever works (or is very, very slow).
We walked into town to buy dinner at the grocery store. They closed surprisingly early (7pm), but we made it with a bit of time to spare. Another sign that we weren’t in France anymore… the sandwiches were made with pretzel bread, instead of a baguette. New country, new bread. Pretzel bread, stuffed pretzels, and other pretzel-based foods are common here.
It was a quite chilly evening. So by 8pm we were in the tent, keeping warm and dry.
Möhlin, Switzerland to Hohentengen am Hochrhein, Germany (16 August 2019, 68 km, 42.3 mi)
Everyone at the campground settled down by around 10:30 pm, which was great. It was a peaceful night and we both slept well.
The morning was quite chilly, and very damp. It was cold enough that I wore leggings for the first time since leaving Scotland, and PedalingGuy started the ride wearing his insulated vest. Even though the day warmed up later, we could still feel autumn in the air.
We rode through several towns before we arrived in one that had a grocery store where we could buy breakfast. At the supermarket in Stein, we both bought something that we thought was quiche, but it turned out to be a cheese tart, topped with tomato - kind of like a pizza, but cheesier. There’s a regional dish called flamkuchen that’s popular both in Germany and Alsace France, that is like a German version of pizza. That’s probably what they were.
After breakfast, we took care of some bike maintenance. We re-wrapped some tape on PedalingGuy’s handlebars, tightened his kickstand, and removed a shard of glass from my front tire. Luckily, it hadn’t worked its way through to the tube, yet. I dodged a bullet on that one.
Packing up after some roadside bike maintenance. Stein, Switzerland. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
Towns along the Rhine River all have a specific look to them, with lots of half-timbered buildings, punctuated by white-washed churches topped by weathered-copper steeples, and adorned with clocks that have a dark face, golden numbers and hands. And, of course, the clocks always show the correct time. They’re never allowed to just stop, or show the wrong time, the way so many old clocks on buildings do in the US.
Laufenburg castle ruins and the steeple of St. John’s Church in Laufenburg, Switzerland. The church steeple has all the standard elements: white tower, copper steeple, and a dark-faced clock that tells the proper time. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
Along the way, PedalingGuy remarked that the Swiss seem very busy, and he’s right. There are lots of factories lining the Rhine. And they are all buzzing with activity. There’s an ongoing rhythm of machinery clanking, conveyor belts whirring, and engines humming. Even in residential areas, we hear people pounding and sawing things. Busy.
A little over halfway through the ride, we were riding parallel with the famed Black Forest. We’re still in Switzerland, and the Black Forest is in Germany, but we could see it across the river. In fact, all of the surrounding hills are thickly wooded. There’s a lot of diversity in the trees, and they’re quite a bit bigger than trees we saw in France. The whole area feels more productive and lush.
The farm fields have a different variety of plants as well. One that caught our eye was a very large root plant that we’re pretty sure is rutabaga - one of our favorite winter holiday veggies. It was fun to see field after field of these Central European staples, along with others like cabbage and potatoes. It’s a nice change from the acres of corn.
A rutabaga in the field. Full-Reuenthal, Switzerland. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
Our route paralleled the Rhine River all day. We rode near the waterway quite often - dropping down to near water level, then climbing up on surrounding hills, again. It’s a lovely river - emerald green, and running deep and fast.
Confluence of Aare and Rhine Rivers, Koblenz, Switzerland. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
Our campground for the night was on the German side of the river, even though the EuroVelo 6 route stays on the Swiss side here. So we went off route in Kaiserstuhl, and crossed the Rhine back into Germany. We were tickled to see that there was actually a border sign, a rarity in the Schengen visa area of modern Europe.
Swiss/Germany border, Kaiserstuhl, Switzerland. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
The German campground was very similar to the Swiss one where we stayed last night, except that it was much bigger. Its core was a fairly large community of permanently-parked, “mobile” homes and campers. Tent campers like us, both cyclists and cars, were all together on a lawn, at the far end of the campground - but reasonably close to the shower block. It got pretty crowded by the end of the evening, even though we were the only cyclists. Everyone else arrived by car.
Our campsite, Hohentengen am Hochrhein, Germany. We were the only cyclists there. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
As is normal, the wifi did not work in the campground. And as an added bonus, there was no cellular coverage either. So if you wonder why this blog is late in getting updated, we have our excuses all prepared. Another data-free night can sometimes be kinda nice. Instead, after dinner we went for a long walk along the Rhine, which runs right by the campground.
