Hello.

We're now in Mulhouse (back in France, South of strasbourg).

Following on from the last blog, it rained all night when we were in the campsite in Radelange and the rain continued into the morning. We were reluctant to leave the tent but we managed to eventually. However one of the zips for the inner compartment had come off somehow so we had to be careful when zipping up the other one.. but in the rush of packing up in the rain I zipped up the inner compartment and the zip came off in my hand! So we packed it up and got going knowing that we couldn't camp that night (as it was impossible to get into the tent!) until we managed to fix it. So we decided we would try to reach Luxembourg city. We cycled in the rain and up lots of hills. Instead of eating bread and cheese for lunch like we normally do we decided to stop in a pizza takeaway to get out of the rain. We carried on and managed to get to Luxembourg city where we got lost but eventually found the youth hostel and booked one night. We hung up the tent in the dorm to dry it out. We managed to fix the zip yay but still needed to sew it up to keep the zip in place. The next morning we decided to stay an extra night so we could spend a day exploring luxembourg city. We walked a lot around the city which just seemed full of designer shops, but we found an interesting exhibition about the European union and how great it is (made me feel very sad about brexit). Later we went on a free minature train ride which was great!

The next day we popped up a hill near the hostel to have a look at the old citadel. Then we got our bikes from the hostel and set off. We did a shorter distance and stayed with a nice man called Raphael in Remish (in Luxembourg but near the borders with France and Germany) through Warm showers. The next morning, we set off and headed to Shengen. Raphael had kindly organised for us to borrow a sewing kit from his ex wife who works in the European centre in Shengen. So we met her and their daughter who gave us 2 big sewing kits! So we sat outside the European centre fixing the tent. We went into another exhibition about the European union and made our own 'Shengen passports'! After that we carried on and went into France for a couple of hours. We had the first puncture of the trip on Vianney's bike and fixed it. We carried on and crossed the border into Germany. That night we stayed with a nice german couple in Saarlouis called Dieter and Eveline and Dieter made a delicious meal. Eveline is half french so her and Vianney discussed the french elections too.

The next day Dieter accompanied us for the first part of our journey to show us a short cut back to the cycle track. We stopped off in Volklingen to look at a unesco world heritage site which was the first industrial unesco site. It was interesting to have a look but we decided not to go in and to continue cycling. We crossed the border back into France and headed to Sarreguemines where we stayed with a lovely girl called Justine. She introduced us to dampfnudel which are a local recipe for a kind of dessert which we ate with apple puree. Yum! The next morning Justine came with us for the first part and we cycled on along the canal so it was nice and flat! It has been quite cold when cycling so we can't stop for long! We see lots of birds when cycling like herons, purple herons, buzzards, red kites. We tried to rescue a fish that was caught on the lock gate of the canal with a big stick but then luckily the water came up and saved it! That evening we stayed with a kind man called Michel in his big house and ate dinner with him, his son and his son's girlfriend.

The next morning we set off for Strasbourg. The route was really beautiful with the old canal houses (maisons d'eclusiers) and vertical walls of rock on one side of the canal. We started to see cranes (cigognes) which was exciting and also feels like a sign of Bulgaria for us. As we got closer to strasbourg there were more and more cyclists (before then we haven't really passed many cyclists along the way). We did quite a big distance that day (88km) and arrived in Strasbourg at around 6pm. We had organised quite last minute on warm showers to stay with Stéphanie in her apartment. She said we could stay as long as we accepted to speak about politics as it was the election results! When we arrived, Stéphanie needed to go to her allotment to water it and said we could go with her. She was excited to show us her allotment and all the veg and fruit they have planted. We went back and cooked together which was nice. Stéphanie introduced us to panisse which is amazing chick pea stuff which you fry. We asked if we could stay an extra night and she said we could.

So the next day we explored Strasbourg which is such a lovely city. It is really bike-friendly (although we had a day off cycling and walked instead). We went to the cathedral and climbed up the tower. That evening we cooked ratatouille for us and Stéphanie.

The next morning Stéphanie's friends were about to arrive to rehearse (she is an actress) so we said goodbye and set off. It was very cold and rain was forecast for later on. We were planning to camp last night but the forecast was predicting heavy rain so we emailed Thomas and Christelle on warm showers last minute and they said we could stay with them. We cycled through beautiful alsacien villages and vineyards in the mountains (les vosges). It got colder and colder and the heavy rain started at about 4pm. We arrived at Thomas and Christelle's house a bit early as they said they wouldn't be back until 7pm so we sheltered under their neighbour's garage until Thomas got back and let us in, it was so good to shower and be dry, we were so happy not to be camping! We had such a lovely evening with Thomas and Christelle with yummy food and hearing about their year long cycle trip to India. They gave us some good tips for wild camping too! When the weather gets better we will definitely do more camping.

We set off at 8am this morning which is quite early for us so we managed to get 40km done before stopping for a coffee in Colmar. We noticed that there is snow in the mountains! We looked for somewhere cheap to stay this evening online and found a F1 hotel in Mulhouse which was quite cheap. So we cycled there and ended up doing 100km today. It got so cold we were wearing all our clothes! We stopped at lunch to make sandwiches by a vineyard and the farmer said "it's too cold for cycling!"

The F1 hotel is pretty bad - when we got here our key code didn't work for ages, and then the room they gave us had loads of rubbish in it and the sheets obviously hadn't been changed so eventually we managed to get a different room which is ok. We cooked pasta in our room on our gas stove. So all in all we're happy to be inside out of the rain (yellow weather warning in this area!) Tomorrow we're hoping to get to Switzerland!