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Day 19, a day trip from Mulhouse to Cernay - 64 kilometers

Route conditions: Heavy traffic leaving Mulhouse, thinning  and a bike lane as you reach the smaller towns of Richwiller and Wittelsheim. Bikepath from Wittelsheim to Cernay. Directions: Take the D20 northwest out of Mulhouse, crossing over the A 36, bikelane starts. Turn onto a small road signed for Richwiller leading north through a forest at Lutterbach. Turn northwest onto the D19 at Richwiller and continue to Wittelsheim. From Wittelsheim, follow the signs to the bike path taking you to Cernay.

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    We were down to our last outfits. We loaded the panniers with dirty clothes and rode to the laundry. While the girls did the clothes, I scouted out a patisserie and found soft drinks, quiches and pan chocolate for all of us.  After finishing the clothes, we rode back to the hostel and unloaded, leaving the bikes clear for luggage free touring.

    Jeanette had examined the brochures available to be found at the hostel lobby and decided that she wanted to visit the fabric and wallpaper museums. Roxcie and I looked at each other and said, OK. Really though, Jeanette had been a real trouper and we owed it to her to go along. By the time we reached the fabric museum it was 11:30 and the museum closed at 12:00 for lunch. Jeanette looked at us and said, "Ok, let me go in for the half hour and I'll meet you outside." Roxcie and I had seen a park two blocks away in front of the train station and told Jeanette we'd meet her there. We were relieved!

    Jeanette was prompt in meeting us and we headed to the old village for lunch. We checked our bikes at the free attended parking and then found a combination butcherie/patisserie that also had table service and had a fabulous meal. We walked around after lunch until it was time to ride to Riedsheim to visit the wallpaper museum. The route took us through the city streets until we crossed the N66 and found ourselves on a residential street that led us to the wallpaper museum.

    The tour of the wallpaper museum was relatively short. We were disappointed that we were not able to view the actual making of wallpaper using the antique presses but we were there on the wrong day. Finishing so early meant that Jeanette could re-visit the fabric museum and finish her tour. Roxcie and I told her we'd meet her on our now reserved bench in the park two blocks away when she was done.

    Jeanette came out of the museum satisfied that she had now seen the WHOLE exhibit. It was time for dinner. We had heard of the town of Cernay, a small village not too far from Mulhouse that was sort of the southern anchor of the Alsatian Wine Route. Since it was in range of a dinner ride, we had decided to visit the village for dinner.

    It was not easy to get out of Mulhouse to reach Cernay. We examined the maps and finally picked a path to follow that would take us through a few small villages and then to a bike path that would take us the rest of the way.

    We rode through some heavy downtown traffic until we crossed an elevated A road and entered the village of Lutterbach. Once there, a bike lane started that took us through the village and to a lightly traveled road that cut through a forest to another small village. We followed along until we reached the bike path to Cernay. The path followed a medium sized stream that had a few riffles and was almost mountainous in appearance at times.

    We hadn't gone far when Roxcie had a flat on her rear Specialized Nimbus Tire. I pulled the tube and examined the carcass of the tire. I found a shard of glass in the carcass and pulled it free and repaired the tire with the new Performance glue-less patches.

    The bike path took us close to the center of Cernay and we started looking for a place to eat. Cernay proved smaller than any of us had expected and we had a choice of one French restaurant, one pizza house and one place featuring Chinese food. We picked the Chinese food. We chained up the bikes and walked in and were greeted by a very enthusiastic young Chinese waiter. He sat us at a table and asked us if we were German. We said no, we were American from California. He went bonkers! He was so excited. He told us that he had been working at the restaurant for five months, having come from mainland China and that we were the first Americans he had met.

    We looked at the menu, something similar to what we would find in the U.S. and ordered our dishes. Our waiter hovered over us. The meal was great and REAL Chinese food. At least as REAL as anything we'd get in the U.S. Our waiter continued doting over us through dessert and even accompanied us out the door. I asked him to write his name on my note pad and took a picture of him, telling him I'd put him on our website and make him world famous. He could not stop saying thank you.

The ride to Cernay had been slightly uphill the whole way. We hadn't noticed it for part of the way but it really became apparent on the return trip to Mulhouse. We flew! We reached the hostel just as it was too dark to ride without a headlight. It was time to fill out the journals and go nighty-night.

Accomodations and recommendations:
We did not get the name of the Chinese restaurant in Cernay but it's directly across from the church in the town square. The prices are typical, from E4 to E8 per dish. It was excellent Chinese food.

Day 20, Mulhouse to Colmar - 60 kilometers

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