Ibis Besancon Gare Besançon

... the tale of captivity of Francois Bonivard. Francois was chained to a pillar in the dungeon for 6 years. We had a glimpse of the Swiss Alps which we will have to cross this weekend! YIKES. <br><br>Weather is good&#8230;car is great&#8230;.being out of America&#8230;..priceless!<br><br>Sorry No photos....the connection speed is very slow.......

... a massive fortress at the top of the hill of course. It now houses various concerns including a zoo with wallabies. We looked at the history of the citadel..all about war/defence and also a history of the resistance in France in WW2. That was one of the most sobering and comprehensive collections either of us have ever seen and we have been talking about it since.<br>After that we headed up to Kayserburg another beautiful village but more ...

... it and read it and saw that it told me the code to get inside the building and then the code for the safe and where the safe was. I opened the safe and found another envelope with my name and that had our room number and key. So we went to the room. We were happy to finally have a chance to shower and feel less grubby. Once we were feeling better, and had all of our things inside, we went to walk around a bit. We walked down the street and found a ...

... hello to various people on the trail as you do. In the end I got into Krems about 4pm. At 56 miles its decent day (after yesterdays disaster). I do need a rest day; the washing situation is desperate and my hands and muscles are feeling it. But they have great maps outside town so you can see how to get to what your looking for. Excellent. So I go straight to the camping but they don't have wifi so I head for the hostel. Which is ...

... fairly fitfull night's sleep. But the family started early and so inevitably did I. The other occupant also cleared out promptly and after a breakfast of dry bread and a mandarin I went back to bed for a kip. Was eventually woken by the cleaner, got up, went to Lidl had another sleep. Woke up and realised that my warm ski jacket had gone. No one has it and I'm rather missing it. I have waterproof stuff and warm stuff; the jacket was my main warm stuff. It had to be replaced ...

... compatible stuff; just a tupperware box. No lockers either but it looks ok. Food supply should be better Tomorrow too as only cafe's were open today. Two nights here as I want to reaquaint myself. 150 kms from the austrian border, thats 2/3 days cycling. Hostel has a shower in the shareed room, a terrace and a TV room but no wifi. Went for a night time stroll in Regensburg. Its changed and there are a lot more cars. Also my memory of it is an ...

... for single people. One in particular has an pool so i might get holed up there for a day as rain is forecast. The weather on this bit of the trip is quite tricky; its a ski area in a good year and I don't know how spring like things are. Also this route follows a major route through the mountains so it might be busy. On the other hand I hear claims of extensive cycle ways so ...

... and canal can run in parallell at different levels. Anyway Dole is basically on a large plain and the countryside is wide open flat and often windy. The towpath however was a delight; tarmac'd and smooth, level and often appearing to slope downhill. I hoped to get bread for breakfast at the first villaage but had to go to the second instead. This was a revelation; an uphill climb to a very busy minor road which I had considered riding. This village also has a fire ...

... all of which have survived centuries of war and destruction. It is ringed with canals and waterways and we took an open air boat trip up the Rhine River and this was the hottest I have been all trip, but was a good way to get an orientation for this city which is the capital of Alsace. Of the approximately 120 people on the boat, only 9 (including we 2 Aussies) wore hats, which reminds me, we have seen scores of cyclists every day and hardly any of them wear ...

... They asked me about the US and as to why I was in France...I told them that I was a student and everything and they asked me about how I liked France and Besancon. According to the couple Besancon also had an international language program like Dijon does as well as a music conservatory, as well as a university. I told them about Dijon and the three of us talked about the US, France and Europe in general for a few minutes. Finally, when my ...