TdE - Day 31 Breuschwickersheim - Lutzelbourg

Route: Breuschwickersheim - Marmoutier - Lutzelbourg
Distance: 45 km
Elevation: 437 m
Duration: 2:50 h
Weather: very sunny, but not that hot, 22 C 

Today was kind of a rest day, just 45 km in a day and a long test on a bench in front of this church:

The day started late after a breakfast at 9:15 on a small terrace in front of my gîte accommodation. Finally I started shortly after 11:00, probably the latest start of the entire tour. But the plan for today was quite short on purpose, to relax and now I feel ready for over 100 km tomorrow. 

After a short time I ended up in the middle of some major road works, but luckily and with the permission of the workers I was able to use their service roads so I didn’t need to find an alternative or mingle with the real traffic. 

A little bit later I rejoined a cycle path which was running on old train tracks, which is such a comfortable way of cycling. Even better than canals, because the landscape in general is more varied, i.e. not continuously along a canal. 

Shortly before Marmoutier I met an other cyclist and he a restaurant at Marmoutier where he was going to meet his mother for lunch, and yes it was as very nice place for lunch. In that village there was also this originally medieval church, but inside it wasn’t very interesting. 

In contrast to the last two days there weren’ta lot of vineyards today, but normal fields and getting closer to the Vosges, and starting to enter them. After Saverne I joined the Marne-Rhein canal which is an engineering achievement with a lot of sluices in order to get up through the Vosges and over to a canal towards the Saar. Today it seems to be only used by pleasure boats, but originally it was built in order to transport building material from the mountains to Strasburg. 

Each sluice makes an enormous step as one can see in this “before - after” picture:

Afternoon ride to Boskoop

Bicycle: 50 km 
Riding time:  2:55 h
Total ascent: 64 m
Avg speed:  17.1 km/h
Max speed:  28.8 km/h 
Route: Leiden - Boskoop - nearly Bodegraven - Alphen - Leiden
Weather: Sunny and quite warm, 20 C

Today I decided to stop working quite early (around 16:00) after a week travelling (to Madrid) and working long hours nearly every day. And then set off for a ride out. I hadn't really a specific idea where to go, until about 10 m after I left home when I thought, that I could try for Boskoop. I had never been there, but the cities name obviously sounds juicy. 

I looked at the street signs and found easily some for Alphen aan den Rijn and decided that on the way I would find further signs for Boskoop. 

Here is where I turned away from the Rhein and off towards Boskoop: 

The way to Boskoop was very well indicated. Around Boskoop the number of tree nurseries went up spectacularly and it seemed that the city council had instated a law mandating a well groomed and designed front garden or face death penalty (or at least eternal ousting from the neighbourhood association). Each garden was a show room and many houses on the back end had a tree nursery attached. 

Per Strava it was 20 C on average, but that must be an average which does not account for the local climate in Boskoop where it was really hot, and that although it was probably already past 18:00 when I was there. 

In the centre of the village is an interesting bridge: 

Then I looked at my map and decided not to continue to Gouda, also because it was getting later and it was still quite hot, so I thought that returning would be a good idea. I had thought to ride to Bodegraven and then along the Rhein back, but finally turned briefly before through a nice landscape including this long and shaded avenue:

I would say that the entire ride until Alphen was very nice. In Alphen itself I got lost (not for the first time, grrrr....), although I tried following the street signs for Leiden, but somewhere I must have assumed straight when it was right. 

While riding (well, while stopping during the ride) I was messaging my husband where I was and at some point I told him that I'd be home before 21:00, to which he replied "Okay, we'll meet after the theatre at home"... um... I had totally forgotten about it. But at that moment I was in Alphen at yet an other vertical lift bridge ...

... and nothing I could do about it anymore to arrive in time for the 20:00 theatre performance. 

So here just a bridge performance: 

Which was probably better than the theatre performance anyway from which my husband returned with nearly an hour delay (there was a discussion about the piece afterwards) and quite annoyed at it (hopefully not at me). 

When I finally found the way home from Alphen, I just stopped one more time to get a picture of this  factory slowly falling apart, inappropriately named "Nieuw Werklust"