After a not very long sleep and a nice breakfast, I tried the LBS, but alas, no joy. My derailleur seems to be ok but my back wheel is missing a spoke. Let’s see how long that will go well, might have to get a new wheel before long.
After that, a great massage, a haircut by the most meticulous barber I have ever met, feels great! Shout out to Timing Cut Barber. I might have to come to Wiesbaden for haircuts going forward.
The first long one today, want to be on the road by 8am-ish, it’ll probably take me 2h longer than the usual 4.5h. I need to pace myself. I can really feel the multi-day load. Looks like there will be some rain passing through today with temperatures in the high 10s. But first breakfast. After the dinner last night, my appetite for an extensive breakfast was limited, so the usual Kafi & Gipfeli (aka Swiss Breakfast) was the way to go.
As anticipated, this was a well-needed day for recovery. The hotel was perfect for the occasion, starting with a huge breakfast buffet, good coffee, and what really turned into a leisurely brunch. Afterwards sauna, sleep, reading, writing, a bit of a walk through the very pretty old town of Ettlingen, and then dinner in the 1 Star Erbprinz Gourmet restaurant.
I chose the five course meal with matching wines and it was a solid 1 star performance. There was some “fingerfood” followed by an amuse bouche of salmon in joghurt sauce. Let’s call it interesting. Especially the asparagus water with raspberry vinegar was strange.
After the splurging last night in the fine dining restaurant, breakfast this morning consisted of a couple of croissants, jam, and a couple of cups of coffee. Then pack and go, 80k on the plan.
The 80k came with a bit more elevation (enough to be noticed) and significantly more wind. But - I was lucky, the forecasted thunderstorms passed through the area last night and I was able to ride the whole way without having to take the train.
Google Reader, what’s that? It has been discontinued in 2013 - mainly because of the lack of mass appeal I guess. For me however it was an essential tool, as it kept me up to date on my blogroll via RSS feeds. So after the death of the reader, I moved all my feeds to feedly, where they have been ever since. But these days, as homelabs and self-hosted services are a feasible alternative to commercial services with all the benefits of keeping my own data at home, it has been time to rewire this essential part of my day.
Ettlingen. Wait, what? How does this line up with Colmar and Strasbourg? Where is that and what makes it notable enough to stop there?
Well. It is about 10k south of Karlsruhe but its claim to fame for this trip is the Hotel Erbprinz, which has been highly recommended to me and thus, Ettlingen is on the map.
Again, a wonderful and restful night. Breakfast was a buffet, really well made and delicious food, even the bulk scrambled eggs which I usually have only contempt for. Lots of quick carb options, energy levels up.
Day 2. After a very restful day yesterday and getting into a proper sleeping pattern, things are hurting a bit. Let’s see how this goes today.
Voila! Le Croissant, le Baguette, le Gugelhupf! Delicious, filling, lots of simple carbs for quick energy with good coffee and orange juice. Excellent way to start the day. Packing up and getting back into it! On y va.
Let me quote myself from not quite 24h ago…
So, Day 1 finally arrived and this journey started with the first step. How satisfying it was to put the out of office message in, delete teams and outlook from my mobile and get into the swing of things!
I woke up at 5.40am at Zurich Airport in the Hyatt Regency hotel. For some reason not a restful night, but perhaps it was the anticipation. The Hyatt is a great hotel a stone’s throw from the airport and is my go to hotel for when I have to catch an early flight. This time it was where the car with all the kit and the bike was parked. So in the morning, after doing a final packing check (and still forgetting things…), I checked out and drove to Basel, from where my cycling trek was planned to start.
Being the techie that I am, of course a 14 day cycling trip is going to require some serious tech. So here’s what my cycling carry looks like.
I used to use Garmin Edge devices on my various biking adventures, but they are tiny, routing info needs squinting and the smarts required to get back to the route after a detour, or starting somewhere else than what the route said have been seriously lacking. Combine that with severely limited storage and all that in expensive device… no thanks. I am carrying the perfect cycling computer with me all the time, my iPhone. So, on this trip, I am using my iPhone 15 Pro on a Quadlock Magsafe holder, connected to a massive battery, which rides in my top tube bag. That way, I am not going to be out of battery.
So I am about to do a thing. Cycle from Basel to Cologne and then back to Mannheim for relaxation and to switch off from work. This trip is going to start on Wednesday, May 28th 2025. For that I am starting this blog, so I can keep a diary for myself and whoever it may interest.
There is a network of pan-European cycling routes, called the EuroVelo network - and I am going to go loosely along a majority of number 15. From Basel to Karlsruhe, I am staying on the French side, then I’ll switch over.
