September 9: When Canadians run out of things to say, they fall back on the weather, which is invariably too cold, or too hot depending on the season. So lacking inspiration, today we start with the weather.
As I reflected on my trip last year, I realized that I had encountered only one day of rain that affected my travels. This is partly because there was so little rain, but also because I can make plans to stay in one place for a couple of days if the weather is threatening.This year has been similarly kind to me so far. And this week I spent 2 days in Ribeauville to avoid the worst of some passing showers. This is the main square in the older part of town; my hotel was in the new town, which is to say that it was built post-1700.
It has been very cool and overcast for the last 3 or 4 days. By cool I mean 10 C in the morning and 15 C or so in the afternoon. Without the sun, it never seemed to warm up much, and riding the bike was a real chore. At 10 C an 80 k/hr windchill can make it pretty cold pretty fast. I resorted to wearing my rain gear to stay warm. This morning was cool and partly cloudy; some of the clouds were taking a nap on the valley floor down from the hotel.
Once the sun came up, it warmed into a wonderful day for a tour of the Black Forest, which lies in the southwest corner of Germany, with France on one side, and Switzerland on the other. As the name implies, there is a lot of forest, and a lot of forestry happening hereabouts. It feels Swiss in may respects because of the similar topography, but also because it is a very “tidy” part of the country. What isn’t forest is very well looked after. This happens to be a picture of Waldau; my hotel is the brown building to the right of the church.
Tomorrow, I start my trip back to Heidelberg to park the bike. In 2017 the only serious rain I encountered was on the last day into Heidelberg from Waldau and it rained hard the entire trip. I was soaked to the skin. The forecast looks good for this year, so let’s hope there will be no need to talk further about the weather.