Visited the Maginot museum at Marckolsheim

   

 

One of Strasbourg's oldest buildings

Strasbourg cathedral has the highest spire in the world.
       

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
An example of how signs can be unhelpful
when all you want to do is get out of town.

Apparantly, this one is pointing to the south pole.
 
       
   

Setting off down the Rhine to Rhone Canal

Wrapped for rain		      

 

 

 

    I was wondering what these were; every kilometre or so, a chain hanging from a cable stretched across the canal, with a sign saying, in three languages, "Don't Pull"
       
       
  I figured it out when I turned around and the back of the sign says "Pull"

It's a bell to call the locktender to let him know that your boat is approaching the lock.

He doesn't want to know that your boat is going away from the lock.		  

 

 

 

 

A reminder of the past. This was on the roadside at Marckolsheim, south of Strasbourg.  A small part of the Maginot Line.  They're everywhere in this part of the country.    
       

 

 

 

 

 

  Colmar.

A very visitor-friendly town south of Strasbourg.
  

A stork looking for frogs in the grass by the roadside en route between Colmar and Mulhouse.

There is a stork in Mulhouse's coat of arms.

That's "Mulh Ouse ", not "Mull House".

 

  Haven't we met somewhere?  
Velo's french cousin, in Mulhouse.
       

 

 

 

 

 

Did I mention that there might be some recurring themes?

And that one of them might be TRAINS?

This one is in Mulhouse. Every french town over ~50,000 has rapid transit.
   
       

 

 

 

 

 

   

On the Rhone Rhine Canal, outside of Montbeliard bwilsonduncan and Kurt Gether of Austria exchange photos. Kurt has a friend who is planning an Austria-to-China bike trip, and he's interested in experiences, gear, etc of other velotrekkers.
       

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

Montbeliard

The chateau des ducs de Wurtemburg.

For most of history, this part of frant's was actually German (although Germany wasn't really a 'country' at the time).  Montbeliard was the seat of the Dukes of Wurtemburg, who had land in both what is now frant's and what is now Germany.  The name still exists as a German province.

The dukes took the side of the Protestants in the Reformation and Montbeliard was a Protestant town. It's largest church is a 'temple', not an 'eglise'.   The town became a french posession in 1793, after the french revolution.  The language in the streets, though, is german.


I visited the chateau.  The two towers shown below are the tours de Frederic and Henrietta, duke and duchess during the early 1400's.

 
       

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    The Chateau museum was showing a collection of Goya tapestries.

I liked this one:

"Cats Fighting on a Wall"

 

 

 

 

 

    The chateau kitchen

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