Basel, Switzerland

Today was a scheduled rest day for the trip. However, one of my fellow riders mentioned that it was only a short train trip to Basel Switzerland. When I looked into it, I realized that I could easily take my bike to Basel on the train then cycle back to Freiburg. So last night, I plotted out a route that travelled on a gravel bike path along the Rhine for almost two thirds of the ride before heading away from the river to return to Freiburg.

After breakfast, I went to the train station which is almost directly opposite from our hotel in Freiburg. I bought a ticket for myself and my bike for the 8:43 local train which got into Basel at 9:45. Here is my bike stored on the train. There was a little metal loop that I could lock my bicycle to so that it would not fall over and no one could simply dash off with it.

This is a photo looking back at all of the bikes parked outside the train station in Basel. Biking as a means of transportation is so much more common in Europe than in the US.

It took about 2 miles of riding before I got to the gravel bike path along the Rhine. The bike path was lovely and generally had few people except in occasional places.

Sometimes the Rhine was not visible, but at other times it was.

Here I passed a group getting ready to canoe on the river.

I also passed a small carnival. When I peaked at it, it was full of families with small children.

After about 25 miles, my route turned east away from the river. Even this part of the ride was lovely.

Of course, this also meant more small towns and their churches. I couldn’t do an entire post without a church photo. 😀

Tomorrow is another short day as we ride 40 miles to Donaueschingen.