Thursday started with a 5 km trip into Trier, the oldest city in Germany, founded by Augustus in 20 BC. The Black Gate (Porta Nigra) was the northern city gateway in Roman times and is still very impressive.
The Landesmuseum had a plan of the fort the Romans built on higher ground in 30 BC to put down a revolt, but abandoned 3 years later when peace had been restored. Same plan as the Saalburg; they used it everywhere.
The Neanderthal, Celtic and Roman displays in the Landesmuseum were great (thanks Jack). Highlights for me were 200,000 year old hand axes, cast axe-heads from the bronze age and the piles used to build their bridge across the Mosel 2000 years ago. They didn't have captions in English, but supplied a free audio commentary device, keyed to numbers on many of the cases. Interesting comment related to metal working; "every new technology creates a new elite".
Cast Bronze-Age axe-heads, with a modern copy showing how they were bound into the haft.
Original piles from the 1st Century Roman bridge across the Mosel at Trier.
Roman coins showing how emperor stampings are used to date recovered hoards.
Bronze-Age mould for casting scythes, with a tin casting from this mould made recently.
From Trier I rode south towards a couple of short "best biking roads", crossing into France south of Strasbourg. On the way, 100 km of 30 and 50 kph limits with 1 or 2 km bursts up to 70, and maybe 15 minutes of motorway. The GPS was set for "shortest route" rather than "fastest", so it wove me through all the German villages rather than around them. I didn't mind too much; the variety of ancient house styles still in use was fascinating, and the narrow cobbled streets weaving between the houses wouldn't be seen from the fast route. I discovered what happens when you misinterpret one of the GPS instructions and turn up the wrong road. It happened several times, because its German and French pronunciation is worse than mine, and there are lots of missing street name signs. So I did a lot of weaving around backstreets, as it recalculated a new shortest route. Only twice did it say to me "Impossible; please turn around and go back".
Two "incidents" occurred due to my misinterpretations; on the first, the GPS was happy to have me continue along the road I'd taken, but it got narrower and narrower, and I began to suspect something when I was directed to drive 11.3 km along "Road", not Rue De Caesar, for example, but "Road". Well, we don't tar our fire trails, but in every other sense this was one, as you can see below.
The second incident occurred about an hour from the end of the day; I'd gone a couple of km along this winding uphill road, the sort of bike-road I was looking for, but narrower than preferred, about 1.5 cars wide, like the first photo above, and lacking edge and centre lines. I'd been passed by 5 or 6 pedallers, flying down the hill towards me, more evidence of an interesting climb ahead, when I decided that it wasn't the road I wanted, and turned back. As I passed two riders repairing a puncture on the road edge (these roads have very little verge as we know it) I had to move to the left "lane", and I didn't immediately move back, when around the corner comes a car doing a good clip, and there's another head-on collision about to occur in my European driving life, but luckily this time I didn't react from habit, steered right rather than left, and we passed safely, he with brakes locked and two wheels in the grass. My first right-side incident of the trip; hope it's the last. (It was not)
The biking roads when found ( last 60 km of the day) were excellent, though traffic was a problem at times; stopping for a few minutes for the road to clear gave a good burst of open sweeping bends with wide lanes, before falling back and repeating. Most of the road surfaces I've met are smooth, with edge-markings. A good sign for the next few weeks. The last 15 km of the day down the Rue de Gerardmer was an unexpected pleasure. Wide road, gentle sweeping bends and the traffic making good speed.
Tonight I'm in the rural settlement of Xonrupt-Longemer, where the houses are only a little closer than on Cabbage Tree Road. Xonrupt is only a few km from the Col de La Schlucht, tomorrow's first target, a magnet for both powered and unpowered bikes.
Location:Xonrupt-Longemer, France
Stage 8 of the 2014 Tour finished at Gerardmer
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