September 17: Strasburg to Neuburg
Click on small photos for a full size picture.
After breakfast at the hotel, we take a short walk through the Little France section of Strasburg, which straddles a canal.
By 10:30, we've retrieved the bike and are preparing to leave. Since our
hotel is on the cathedral square, a small crowd forms to see the bike.
With the exception of a couple from New Jersey (some of the few Americans we
encountered on this trip), no one in the crowd spoke English, but we've picked
up enough French and German to describe the bike and our tour. We ride
across the square accompanied by applause and "bon voyage".
It's another pretty day and the miles pass easily. Our plan is to
follow the Rhine north, staying in France, but having the option of crossing to
Germany. We pass remnants of the Maginot Line, defensive fortifications
built by the French after WWI to keep the Germans out. Of course, in 1940,
the Germans took France by entering through Belgium and bypassed the Line
entirely.
When we reach Lauterbourg, France, we find the only hotel in town
closed. With Germany only a kilometer away, we ride across the border and
begin to search for lodgings. There's nothing in the first village, but
signs for two guesthouses in the next, so off we go (it's only 4 km - all
villages are 4 km apart). Unfortunately, both are closed, but the
proprietor of one refers us to the next village. Unfortunately, they're
not accepting guests either and refer us on to Neuburg. We roll into
Neuburg around 6 pm. Spying "Gasthaus zum Sternen" painted on
the side of a building, we pull to a stop. They're open! And they
have a room! Jayne is happy... 
| A Multilingual dinner... As we enter the restaurant
for dinner, the owner's wife tells the waiter "They're Americans, all
they order is schnitzel." She is surprised when we order a
couple of pasta dishes. Tilo, the waiter, suggests a local pinot
noir (at $10/bottle) that is comparable to many fine California
pinots. We're the only patrons in the restaurant, and Tilo's English
is pretty good, so we begin to visit. Hugo, the owner, stops
by and tells us the history of the hotel (Hugo's English is limited, so
Tilo translates as needed). Originally a butcher shop and restaurant
owned by Hugo's wife Christel's family, the building had been renovated
over the years into it's hotel/restaurant configuration.
Dinner is excellent. As we continue to talk with Tilo and Hugo, Jayne mentions that since we live in Texas, we have to speak a bit of Spanish. A few minutes later, Hugo introduces us to Natalie, another guest at the hotel. Natalie is from Spain, and her company has brought her to their plant in Neuburg for several months of training.
We have an interesting, wide-ranging conversation with Tilo, Natalie, and Hugo, switching between English, German, French, and Spanish as our vocabularies stretched thin. |
