Day 25 - Strasbourgh to Lorquin - ride total 1,919 k, 13,932 m

 Today was a day of taking pictures as right from the start there were new things to photograph - Strasbourg had a wonderful bridge an before to long we saw the first of the smaller holiday barges and launches which you could have spent the whole photographing however we had 85 km to ride so had make snap an go pics.

We rode beside a canal for the best part of 65 km's and while barges and holiday launches and lochs were all something new for this journey we became quite used to them at our side. We stopped at a loch as one boat was "going down" and stopped at anoti9l(her to watch the boat "going up". It's all very fascinating as to the engineering that went in to the design of the canal system and we could have followed today's canal for over 300 km's. At one stage it even went through hills and up and down a valley and through a tunnel.

Over the last 20 km's or so we rode in a canal and through a loch. Of course it is now an old and unused canal with no water flowing through it - still very facinating to see.

At each of the loachs there was quite a substantial "Loch Keepers" house however with mechanisation of course there is now no need to peron the lochs. Most of the Loch Keeper's houses appear to now be private residences except for those on the now defunct closed canal where many of them appear to be vacant and  deteriorating. Some may say good "Doer uppers". Others may say an awful lot of hard work, several bucket loads of money and no resale at the end of it. Either way it is a pity to see them falling in to disrepair however by the same token as they do head down that path they begin to take on an appearance that in itself is quite appealing and once again very photogenic I feel.

Our lodgings for tonight is a private Hotel and it's Peter's turn to have the luxury of a room to himself. We're all very democratic when it comes to things like that and sleping on the Thermarest on the floor and it is on a rotational basis - just like lead navigator for the day.

OUr Lnadlady here in showing us around told us breakfast is from 8:30 to 10:00! We asked as nicely as we could if that could be any earlier and she wasn't happy at 7:00 or 7:30 and kind of agreed to 8:00 a.m. - as you know that can be like at least an hour later than our usual (not counting when we aim for an early start).

Another nice thing about this Hotel is I can get make myself a cup of tea (well make that two cups of tea) something that I very much enjoy at the end of a hot day's ride.

Today on the trail we encountered a German Fellow on a modern day Penny Farthing and we kept crossing paths the whole day through - he wasn't mucking around and was averaging pretty much the same speed as we were (okay it was a very flat ride today). He was riding about the same distances per day as us and had started in Munich and is riding to Paris. As there is nowhere on a Penny Farthing to attach luggage he had quite a full back pak on his back with all his personal gear in it.

We certainly encountered a lot more bikes today especiallyover the first 10 - 15 km's  leaving Strasbourg as many were heading to work in the opposite direction to us.

There's a pic of "Wild flowers/vegetation" at the side of the road and it appears that the City of Strasbourg has adopted a "No Mow" policy with their city verges and green space - I'm guessing a) it saves the city money and b) is far more enviromentally friendly in that it provides a habitat for insects and other creatures to survive and do their thing. While they are both quite admirable policies - who doesn't want to pay less rates or taxes, and who doesn't want to help save the planet? It does take a bit of acceptance and adjusting of ones thinking as to how that space "should" look (neat, manicured and tidy) as opposed to overgrown and untidy.

















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