Days 20-27

Finally the sun came out
And blimey, did it shine.
Two hot and sweaty cyclists
Had to cool down in the Rhine!

Dole to Schaffhausen - ? a lot of kms. Total so far +/- 1200kms!!

First, a little comparison on the rivers...
Our first river, La Loire, as I've mentioned, is wild and untamed - slightly furious perhaps. La (feminine) Loire could definitely be thought of as a little premenstrual and unpredictable at times.
La Saone could be her younger sister, but we only crisscrossed her for a few days -not really long enough to get to know her very well.
Le (masculine) Doubs on the other hand, is like a kind, comfortable old grandad. Sure and steady he bumbles along, big, heavy and slow. So gentle, lily pads grow along his waters edge. He generously nurtures the canal that runs parallel to him, sharing his water as they join together often,ensuring the canal is always full enough for its many locks to function. However, we have left him too, and now greeted the Rhine.

The scenery changes dramatically down this end of France. It's a lot more "Sound of Music" with hills covered in wild flowers, mountains carpeted in forests, more rural and sparsely populated.

Besancon is quite a stunning town in its architecture, with its citadel -a UNESCO world heritage site- perched precariously high above the town, but unfortunately the thunderstorms prevented us doing much more than having a tram ride and a beer.
The weather is still making things hard, but not as hard for us as the Dutch couple we met who are also biking and camping with their 3 year old son riding in a trailer for 3 months. All credit to them!

We finally enjoyed our first T-shirt day and the novelty of packing up a dry tent and taking a leisurely lunch in the shade, and after a long, gradual climb we free-wheeled down 15 or more canal locks before finding a good campsite along the canal.

We headed into Mulhouse the next morning so Steve could visit the world renowned car museum. It is home to the world's biggest collection of Bugattis, and also houses cars from their very conception from the late 19th century, throughout the last century, including road-going vehicles and racing vehicles.

The weather got ridiculously hot as we crossed the Rhine into Switzerland, or was it Germany? The border between these two countries is very confusing, and we continued crisscrossing between these two countries for most of the day.

The Swiss part from Basel was slightly disappointing, traversing through chemical factories, recycling centres, quarries, industries, agriculture and a nuclear power plant!

But the forested parts were lovely, and we found a great spot on the Rhine to camp, and bathe in the icy water to cool off our overheated and sun crisped skin!

We are now in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, home of the Rhinefall, Europe's largest waterfall. Did you know that the eel is the only fish that can overcome the obstacle of the falls when swimming upstream? No, I didn't either!

We are in a very nice (but expensive, as everything is in Switzerland) campsite and have had a much needed rest day. Of course it turned cold and rained all day, but Schaffhausen and its beautiful buildings kept us amused all day.

And an even greater surprise was meeting up with our friend Dave, who managed to arrange his business trip around our route so he could come and visit us, and restock our energy levels with good food, drink and chatter. Cheers Dave!