This morning we meet our guides at 11 AM to head out of Basel into the countryside for our first bicycle ride of the trip. Our group includes two VBT guides, Emma and Paul, both from France, and 21 American riders. We leave the hotel and shuttle across the Swiss border into France where we have lunch at the La Péniche in Kembs which is in the middle of a camping area with access to several bike paths. Our lunch meal is a local favorite of the Alsace area, Fleischnacka, also called meat snails or beef rolls and is usually leftover meat and vegetables rolled into a pastry and baked in beef broth.

Next we check out our VBT bicycles and the majority of us are on e-bikes, mainly because this trip is ranked easy to moderate and moderate means hills. The bikes are heavy at nearly 40 pounds and therefore a little unwieldy for me when starting out. But our eight-mile warm-up ride gives us a chance to adjust and get accustomed to shifting and braking.

Our route today includes bike paths, secondary roads, and irrigation roads and this is a very flat area so we also have some wind with which to contend. Most of our ride, however, is along the Grand Canal d’Alsace bike path. We see lots of cornfields – and the corn is up only a few inches at this time of year – as well as wheat fields and garlic fields. Here, we cross the canal and stop for a photo op.

Our warmup ride ends in the small town of Ottmarsheim.

A short ride, but we must have a snack break.

We also have the opportunity to look inside the Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul Church.

It was built between 1030 and 1040 and consecrated in 1049 by Alsatian Pope Leo IX.

The church is somewhat unique because of its octagonal plan and also special because of the frescoes inside the church.

The bicycles are loaded up and then we have a 30-minute shuttle across the border into Germany, arriving in Badenweiler in the heart of the Black Forest.

After our shuttle ride, we check into our hotel, the Park Hotel and Spa Katharina.

Our luggage is waiting for us in our rooms and after we clean up, we meet on the balcony for a preview of the upcoming week.

View from the balcony with the sun setting.

Dinner is at the hotel and we had a choice of three appetizers and three main courses. I chose salad and chicken. Dessert, however, was the same for everyone and that was Black Forest cake.

We only rode eight miles today but we had breakfast in Switzerland, lunch in France, and dinner in Germany.