Strasbourg (Obenheim), France -> Lyon, France
486 km dep: 07:30 arr: 17:45
Date: 16/08/2012
Weather: cloudy then sunny
The village in Alsace I slept in was named Obenheim and around this area, pretty much every one of them ends in “heim” with some very weird names like Boofzheim or Ichtratzheim. Almost beats that place named Szczuczyn (give me a vowel…) in Poland. I left early without saying goodbye to my hosts but left a thank you note with two beers.
While looking at the map, I realized that I could cross through Switzerland. It was a small detour but just for the principle, I decided to head for Basel and then make my way back to France in the Swiss country side. That plan fell short as soon as I reached the border. Sadly, Switzerland is not part of the Schengen zone so they still have border control but what made me turn around was the 40 Euros they were asking for entry.
For the most part, the road was interesting as I was in a semi-moutaneous area and spent quite a bit of time following a river in a valley. On getting closer to Lyon, I found myself back on a French nationale which is nothing really interesting altough it sure beats the roads in Poland.
On reaching Lyon, I headed directly for the city center, walked around a while, had a beer and then left. Apart from being in a valley at the confluent of two rivers, which makes for an impressive cityscape, I am certain that Lyon has a lot to offer in terms of sights but the city being so big, I could not find any worth mentionning. I left early in order to find a good camping spot and I am very glad I did because the region is so very populous that I had to ride about 100 kms to finally be in the wilderness. The number of kilometers displayed in the post’s header does not include it as it is the distance between two objectives but if you add the two up I drove close to 600 kms today. Since it was on tomorrow’s route, it is distance I will not have to cover.
I am glad this trip is nearing its end, not that I do not enjoy anymore, but I feel I have had enough motorcycling and solitude for a while.
