Cloudy and dull at the start clearing to a fine, clear, sunny day, 10-24dg, 51km av 13.4km/h (tot 559km). The low average can be partly explained by our tendency to wheel the bikes through towns and other places of interest. Had a nice tail-wind all the way.
It's funny but at BS we were only 50km from where we started in Zurich . Talk about taking the scenic route!
Because of the short distance we did today we took our time over brekky and were away by about 8:45am. It was a very short ride into the town of Bad Sackingen for a wander. Lovely old (founded in the 2nd century) town connected to Switzerland by a 200m long covered wooden bridge, one of the longest of its kind in Europe. BS is also renowned for its thermal springs. We crossed into Switzerland via the lovely old wooden cycle/pedestrian bridge.
After 10km we entered a gorgeous enchanting forest beside the Rhine. We enjoyed this for about 10km. It was a hard packed dirt/gravel path. We could have ridden this all day as it was so peaceful, albeit a little rough in parts.
Back to civilization and Rheinfelden an old Swiss town right on the Rhine and the border with Germany. We had a nice morning coffee at a place overlooking the Rhine and another cycle/pedestrian bridge (stone this time) to Germany. While we were having mornos we were asked advice about the route to Basel by a German bloke named Tom. Looked about 30 years old. He then stayed with us for an hour or so chatting about our respective countries. He said he was 'f..... burnt out from working too hard and too long hours programming robots'. He added, 'f...... robots are taking over Germany!'. Funny guy, not sure he really knew what the 'f' word meant. We weren't offended by him using it, certainly got the message across.
Not far up the way we visited a set of Roman ruins, Augusta Raurica, founded in 44B.C. Over 200 years it was developed into a thriving metropolis of over 15,000 people. Today it is a museum, excavation site, research centre offering workshops and tours. The amphitheatre has been converted into a modern outdoor performance venue.
After taking every scenic diversion on the route that we saw we finally checked into our apartment at 3:30pm. It's got a lovely kitchenette with all the gear so we're looking forward to doing some of our own cooking for a change. In Basel for three nights.
Had yummy pork chops and salad, with yoghurt dessert and a bottle of NZ for dinner.