We got up very early, determined to beat the heat – our earliest start of the tour at 7.15am.

It was pleasant riding at that time and we picked up Eurovelo 5 alongside the la Marne au Rhin canal. This was a beautiful ride. There were quite a few people out enjoying the canal in the morning – cycling, walking dogs and fishing.

      

We had completed 50km before 11am and passed through Saverne – an interesting looking town with a boat harbour and some massive historical buildings.

After Saverne we saw more tourist boats on the canal as we passed through a number of locks. The canal was climbing steadily through a saddle between the hills. The town of Lutzelbeurg was very picturesque, with the houses and church directly on the canal. The heat was building at this point, so we wanted to keep moving. We stopped at one of the locks and asked if we could get some water (there was a garden hose). The lock keeper kindly went and got water inside as he said it was cooler, then he also got some ice for us.

Suddenly the canal path we were on came to a stop – the boats also couldn’t continue at this point. We went onto the road to try to find the way to Phalsbourg, the next big town near where we had booked some accommodation. We ended up doing an unnecessary hill climb (in the heat) to the town of St Louis.

We backtracked to Lutzelbeurg and got the correct turn-off to Phalsbourg. We did a gradual climb to Phalsbourg, a plain town where the shops were closed.

The last 7km to Metting were hard as it was incredibly hot on the road, with no shade and waves of heat coming up at you from the tar. There were also a few unexpected steep up and down hills. We were dripping with sweat when we arrived.

I had made a booking at a bed and breakfast through bookings.com, as finding accommodation can be tricky on Sundays. However when we got there, there was no one at home. We were worried that they may not have received the booking. Kris wanted to ride on, but I felt that I couldn’t go any further in the heat. It was past 1 pm.

I suggested that we go to the church, as we had seen a crowd of people there having a church lunch when we rode past. We were in luck, as Josephine was there. The people were very sweet and sent out a young man who could speak English and in a few minutes Josephine. She came to open the house up for us and also brought us some cake from the church lunch and gave us each a cold beer.

Later on she came back from the church with her 87 year old friend (still sharp as a tack) and another elderly lodger. They can all speak a simple German dialect, as well as French, but no English – so Kris could communicate with them. They are close to the German border and speak German, but do not speak fondly of the Germans. The younger people in the area can no longer speak German and all learn English at school.

We had a blissful nap in the afternoon. Josephine was a very attentive hostess and kindly made us some French pizza later on – we had enough snacks with us, but it was good to get some hot food.