10 Sep 2011

Baden Baden, Germany to Wissembourg, France (68 Km)

The overripe pear fell straight down between us onto the bike path with an audible SPLAT.  “It’s a good thing I have my helmet on” said Gina.  For the third time this year, it feels like Autumn is here.  First it was Tasmania in April, then Southwest Australia in June, and now Germany in September.  A clear, crisply warm, perfect Autumn day.  Grapes are being harvested from the vines, apples picked from the branches, and pears and plums plopping down upon us as we pedal.  You can smell it in the air, the ripe fruit, the turning leaves, the damp organic earth.  This is when I remind myself to not panic at the rapid passing of time but instead to take a deep breath, let it settle in, and enjoy the warm feeling of a summer well spent and a new, fresh season coming on.  It’s nearly time for us each to reap what we have sown, time to pull together these past four seasons of sights and sounds and travels and treasures and weave it all together into something bold and fun and exciting, something we might not be able to see right now but that will surely be illuminated with the rise of the coming harvest moons.

But until then, it’s time to head west, west toward the river routes that will take us along the Saar, Mosel, and Romantic Rhine.  We started that journey today and find ourselves back in France, if only for a night.  From here we must make it through the Pfalzerfwald, what appears on our cycling maps to be a massive, hilly forest of the same stature as that Black one we pedaled (and pushed) our bikes through several weeks ago.  We know nothing about this Pfalzerwald except that there’s a red line (aka, signed cycle path) running through it, following what we hope is yet another river route that will keep our elevation low and our spirits high.