Rather than go to Budapest as I had planned, I ended up partying with my old exchange student sister, Nina, at Das Fest. The place was totally packed with people and music. I’m sad I missed Budapest but I am very glad that I got to go to Das Fest.
Bike Ride to France
One weekend I decided to take an afternoon ride across the Rhein river into France. Equipped with my boss’s mountain bike and my camera I set off without a map or any idea of what lay ahead other than that there was a bridge near my apartment and a ferry further up the river.
Crossing the Rhein. It was a few more kilometers to the border with France. Karlsruhe is right in the crux of the piece of France that juts into Germany. Had the world wars not happened, the whole Rhein river valley would still belong to Germany.
Looking out across the Rhein from the center of the bridge.
At the border crossing between France and Germany. This is looking back toward the German side.
The sign marking the border. No border or customs stations exist anywhere near this crossing. The old German customs house is an American 50s style diner now. A soccer field even crosses the border. And the town that is bisected by the border seems to not care a bit that half are French citizens and the other are German. Everyone spoke a heavy dialect of German. They also didn’t particularly like to speak to me in German and in fact I had to generally communicate in French or English. They all could understand me just fine. They just didn’t want to since I was speaking high German like that taught in the public schools and spoken at home in the northern parts of Germany.
A little concrete marker showing the border. 1991 was when this particular border crossing was opened. Now the marker serves as a good place to park a bicycle.
This cute little ferry took me back across the Rhein into Germany. Shortly before the ferry a carload of Germans pulled up alongside me and asked for directions in very bad French. I answered them in equally poor French that I wasn’t from there and had no idea where the town was that they were looking for. This ferry was built on top of old pontoon boat things left over from World War II. In fact the whole contraption appeared to be straight out of the American Army Corps of Engineers playbook. A few more kilometers of riding after I crossed the ferry and I was back at my apartment, tired but none the worse for wear.
Tour de France
During the first few weeks that I was in Karlsruhe I was lucky enough to watch the end of one of the stages of the 2005 Tour de France. In spite of le Tour being a French affair, it occasionally finishes or starts in non-French areas. Several hours of anticipation brought the entire city out into the streets to watch as the advertising cars rolled through followed by the police escorts followed by the team cars and finally followed by the actual racers. For only a couple seconds of blurry spandex riding by there certainly is a lot of buildup.
Big screen TVs were setup around the city along the route.
The route through the middle of town. The streets and trains were shut down for the day.
Some sort of promotional event had people riding stationary bicycles in full spandex.
Close to the finish line near the city convention center.
The finish line was underneath the advertisement.
A helicopter came in for a landing in the field near the finish line.
One of the first sponsor vehicles to roll by.
Most of the sponsor cars stopped to pass out free things.
They even passed out free beer.
Things started to speed up as the peloton neared.
This French advertiser really knows how to party!
Some people found clever vantage points to watch the race.
The course was just about cleared and ready for the riders.
The racers blew through so fast that they were just a blur. Somewhere in the pack was Lance Armstrong.
The finish line after the fact.
Buses with the riders going to the hotel for the night.
That is a very expensive bike.
Inside the convention center where a great many vendors had booths setup.
Who needs a seat when you are a downhiller?
Strange semi truck.
Quite a mess was left on the highway.
