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Throughout the week of our bike tour there were times when the weather seemed threatening, but for the most part the rain held off during our rides until the final morning. As we departed Obernai for our final ride on Friday morning, the skies opened up and we found ourselves riding in a soaking rain. Luckily the rain cleared after thirty or forty minutes, as forecast, and the rest of the day was dry, even though the sky never really cleared.
We rode north from Obernai, past more farm land, and through the town of Molshein, home of the car manufacturer Bugatti before turning to follow the Canal de la Bruche. This canal was built under the direction of Vauban to facilitate the movement of sandstone blocks from quarries in the Vosges Mountains to Strasbourg for the construction of the fortifications there. The canal is no longer in commercial use, but still has water in it, providing a lovely setting for our ride.
This final day seemed to be less about the scenery than it was about the animals. In Molsheim, we rode past a park with an enclosure where they care for injured storks. There are additional nests in the area with more storks, all much closer to the ground and easier to see than the ones we'd been seeing earlier in the week. There were also several swans swimming in the canal at this park.
Later, as we were riding along the Canal de la Bruche, we cam across a section of the bike path that was largely overtaken by a large crowd of geese, who showed no interest in getting out of the way of the many bicycles traveling this route. They just sat there and largely ignored us as we slowed down and worked our way around them.
We also saw lots of ducks, a field full of sheep, a grey heron in flight, and, perhaps most unexpectedly, in an enclosure near where we stopped for lunch in Entzheim, a wallaby, who was every bit as out of place here as the Sequoia trees had been earlier in the week.
After our picnic lunch, provided by our tour guides, we rode back to Obernai through more farmland, including the cabbage fields around Krautergesheim, where 70% of France's cabbage is grown and the hops fields near the Kronenbourg brewery. Our bike tour finished back at our hotel in Obernai, where we had our final dinner together before departing for Strasbourg the next morning.
We rode north from Obernai, past more farm land, and through the town of Molshein, home of the car manufacturer Bugatti before turning to follow the Canal de la Bruche. This canal was built under the direction of Vauban to facilitate the movement of sandstone blocks from quarries in the Vosges Mountains to Strasbourg for the construction of the fortifications there. The canal is no longer in commercial use, but still has water in it, providing a lovely setting for our ride.
This final day seemed to be less about the scenery than it was about the animals. In Molsheim, we rode past a park with an enclosure where they care for injured storks. There are additional nests in the area with more storks, all much closer to the ground and easier to see than the ones we'd been seeing earlier in the week. There were also several swans swimming in the canal at this park.
We also saw lots of ducks, a field full of sheep, a grey heron in flight, and, perhaps most unexpectedly, in an enclosure near where we stopped for lunch in Entzheim, a wallaby, who was every bit as out of place here as the Sequoia trees had been earlier in the week.
