A Friendly Alsatian

On 21st May I left the horses with the Werner family at Odelshofen near the Germany-France border, and drove the lorry back to Hungary to fetch my Shagya arabian mare Zahira who had now been covered by a Shagya stallion and tested in foal.   It was quite a tearful parting for her previous owners , shown on the left here with her breeder Robert Grubits and his daughter Adrienn. 

It was a long journey to Dieppe where she was to stay until my arrival with Welsh pony breeder and friend Ingrid Delaitre.  But she travelled well and we arrived safe late the next day.  Here she is the following morning....

 Then it was back to Odelshofen, where Mike and I were treated to an unforgettable jazz evening next door featuring .... Reinhardt, a relative of Django no less.  With the Werner family the following morning 26th May 2012.  Erhardt and Anne, and daughter Eva who accompanied me to the border on her horse.

Arriving at the Rhine which is also the border between Germany and France.....

...and arriving at Strasbourg in France!.......I don't think the speed limits will affect me...

 

Coping with the time-consuming logistics of tackling the EU, and concentrating on the primary task of crossing Hungary, Austria and Germany, I had not got round to sorting out a more exact route with relevant maps for France.  However I realised there was a network of canals in France which appeared to have paths running alongside which could perhaps provide a convenient route. In particular the Rhine-Marne canal reached the Rhine at Strasbourg, and led westwards to Nancy. 
I contacted my French friend Ingrid. Could she ask the relevant canal authorities if I would be able to use the French canal paths?  The answer from the powers-that-be was not an official 'yes' but neither was it negative. In fact they merely advised me to avoid cyclists by using the service path on the opposite bank where possible, which I translated as an unofficial at-your-own-risk go-ahead!
  Negotiating the built-up areas on the Rhine banks in Strasbourg, I was soon able to join the canal and set off along the adjoining cycle path.
 Riding past the European parliament, shown on the left.....

The little green protestor's tent is pitched outside the European Court of Human Rights which is on the right hand side. I would have liked to have had time to stop and find out their complaint, but I had a couple of dirty looks from passers by here and moved on swiftly!

 

 Zorbee meets a flock of swans on the cycle path, which has a constant flow of cycle traffic.  It must be a most pleasant way to travel to work in the city.

 We have soon left the city limits and are out into the country... 

I had arranged to meet Mike at a bridge crossing the canal near Krautwiller.  The name gives a clue to the history of this region.   We were now in Alsace-Lorraine, an area annexed by the German empire in 1871 during the Franco-Prussian war. Many German names still remain, though the region was returned to France after World War I.

After waiting some time for Mike and with my mobile out of battery I was starting to get anxious. I knocked on the door of a house by the bridge and an Alsatian emerged.   I am not a huge fan of the canine variety, but this was Jean-Marc Jacob, who not only spoke excellent English (he had been a chef in London) but let me use his phone to contact Mike who was waiting at the wrong bridge.  And not only that, he invited us to use his premises - a canal side restaurant he had recently closed down. There was a grassy orchard for the horses, an outside restaurant area with wifi, and even an outside pool shower, though we did not take advantage of the latter.  

Mike pushes in the tethering stake while Zorbee rolls the sweat away in the lush grass and Bolly tucks in........

 

  

I am a Lumberjack....

.........with Emil Buhler, who owns and works about 300 acres of  forestry, and wife Rita at Unterlangenbach near Wolfach.........and he was definitely OK!

 Bea, Melanie and I arrived tired and late in the Langen valley on May 18th and realised the stables we were aiming for were still about 4 kms further up the valley and in the opposite direction from my direct route.  So Bea asked the occupants of a lovely house by the road if they could help.  These were Emil and Rita, and  Emil immediately gave us a paddock to put the horses.  Bea and Mel were leaving me here so Mike had to drive the horses home in the lorry, but this friendly couple took me in for the evening. With the help of a bottle of local white wine we had a most convivial evening in spite of the fact that our knowledge of each others' languages was severely limited!  Among other things it transpired that Emil's father had been a chauffeur for one of the Germans involved in the plot to kill Hitler, and as a result had known about it himself!
My route to the German-France border now lay along the Kinzig valley, and I was able to follow the river for much of the way.........

 Cycling is a priority in Germany, both for getting to and from work, and as a leisure activity.  The country is well provided with cycle paths, which I have used for some of the time, occasionally to the surprise of the wheeled travellers.    A cycle path near Wolfach......

 A common sight on high days and holidays  - the whole family out on wheels. In this case father on rollerblades and the rest on bikes....

Mike found us an excellent place to stay near Biberach on May 19th at the Schillihof guesthouse   http://www.schillihof.de/  (recommended!) where the horses had a grassy paddock again.  We have been managing Zorbee's tendency to weave with increasing success, and have not seen him weave once since we left Austria. He is happiest when Bolashak is tethered on a grassy area outside while he remains loose - he never strays far from his Kazakh buddy. 

Michael Schilli and daughter

 Mike in bliss as he succeeded in negotiating cut price for a room which they had not had time to clean out - an excellent option when the alternative was taking his sleeping bag into the log shed.  So we could both take advantage of the shower and have a sundowner on the balcony overlooking the Kinzig valley.

 The following morning I came across the singular sight below of a hussar riding along the cycle path on his charger - rather incongruously for a warhorse, a Haflinger.  The explanation for his unusual equestrian outfit came when he asked a passing jogger to interpret.  He was taking part in a historical pageant at nearby Gengenbach and invited me to accompany him!

So after joining up with his impeccably turned out colleagues....

........I ended up as a rather eccentric and grubby addition to the back of a procession of mounted hussars and foot soldiers into the centre of town. However I was very proud of Zorbee who stood almost like a rock when the soldiers fired off their ancient muskets....
I chummed up with horseless female hussar Veronica (shown below), whose horses had unfortunately died recently.  She bought me a glass of wine which Zorbee immediately knocked over.

Before Christmas the Gengenbach town hall with its 24 windows is transformed into a huge advent calendar, with a window being opened every day...

That evening we reached Schutterwald, where we were very happy to be hosted by the Riding Club Reiterverein Schutterwald. I am shown below with chairperson Reiner Oswald and family.  When Mike and I returned from a Chinese meal we treated ourselves to, we found he had left a bottle of wine in the lorry for us!  Many thanks Reiner!



A Walk in the Black Forest

May 17th morning start from Grosselfingen and I am joined by Melanie and her part Friesan mare rather surprisingly called Alvin (on the left) and Bea from Seissen with her Halflinger mare Sienna.

 Today we rode across the Neckar river and into the Black Forest.

Gosh it looks black......

 Coming down to Obendorf

 It is like Piccadilly Circus up here....

 We were royally hosted at Fluorn Winzeln by Monica and Patrick, shown on right below - grassy fields for the horses and a barbecue for us. I had a couple of interviews for newspaper and radio.

 Bea's dog cools off in a river....

 Following narrow and steep paths through the woods down to Schiltach....

 Schiltach is a very picturesque Black Forest town in the Kinzig valley.......

 Picnic in Schiltach by the Kinzig.  A group of neighbouring picnicers fed us all their surplus food and we were replete!

A Day in the Life......

May 16th and a soaking wet morning.....

.... Zorbee and I entered a forest and rode along the edge of a steep escarpment with fabulous views, or at least I imagine they were as I could see nothing in the thick mist which descended......

...not long after followed by a hailstorm - you can see the hailstones littering the ground in the photo below....

...

 After scouting around for a while I managed to find a steep rocky path down the escarpment which Zorbee and I slid down .....  Of course it does not look at all alarming in the photo but Zorbee willingly negotiates all obstacles .....

A scary tunnel.......

....but that was easy peasy ... a railway crossing maze....

 Zorbee finds a new friend - a friendly road litterman who produced a bag of apples for him.

In the distance on the far right of the photo below is the escarpment we slid down.  And flying above the tree is a familiar mid Wales sight - a kite...

....of the avian variety.......

A wonderful dinner laid on at Grosselfingen by our kind host Mr Hauth, fourth from left in the photo below.

And we were provided with camp beds to sleep on!  Very civilised.

 I really MUST be shrinking day by day. With Melanie who rode with me for the next two days and husband Benjamin  ......



Sauntering through Swabia

On May 14th I set off from Seissen with Gaby and Andrea to continue across Swabia and the district of Baden-Wuttenberg ...... 

....along yet more secluded  tracks through forested hills........

 

We had arranged to meet up with Mike at a road crossing in the middle of nowhere for human and equine refreshment, but we waited in vain as he had mistakenly stopped at a different junction ..........

.. unable to contact him as our mobiles had no reception in the deep valley we decided to ride on.  Every cloud has a silver lining, and at the next village Andrea stopped to ask for water for the horses from an elderly lady - and what a character she turned out to be!   An eighty four year old widow, Elisa Stephani insisted we stop for tea and cake sitting outside her neat house while she regaled us with her life story. An amazingly active lady, among other pastimes she knits little woollen dolls which she gives away to as presents to those she regards as deserving - to our delight we were all allowed to choose one each from her collection - even Mike who eventually found us- Andrea is holding the little red character that I chose ...

Gaby and Bolashak in the Swabian Alps........

After an overnight stay in Fladhof, Andrea and I set off towards my next stop at Willmandingen ..... Gaby had to return to work, but we were joined for the day by friend Franci who took over the ride on Bolashak.

Through the woods - more superb countryside.......

We come across a field of Carpathian buffalo, but after our stay in Hortobagy Zorbee has seen it all.....

A cheerful duo even though the weather turned wet and we had to don our waterproofs.....

                                    
Andrea (and Leo) had to leave me just after this photo was taken and I was very sorry to see her go - she was a tremendous help and great company.