Cycling Through Alsace: Strasbourg to Geiswasser
Day 6 — Strasbourg to Geiswasser (Camping L’Orée du Bois)
An Early Start Out of Strasbourg
Some days on tour are about pushing through difficult terrain this wasn’t one of them. With a flat, easy 90 kilometers ahead, the plan was simple: leave Strasbourg early and give myself plenty of time to enjoy the ride rather than race the clock. That morning at the campsite, with the low sun still casting long shadows across the grass, was the perfect time for a final gear check before the day properly began panniers cinched down, water bottles filled, helmet clipped to the rack.
A Fellow Traveler on the Road
Somewhere on the way out of Strasbourg, I picked up company for a stretch of the ride a bikepacker headed in the same direction, at least for a while. His route made mine look modest: he’d set out from Switzerland, looped through Austria and Hungary, crossed back through Germany, and was now making his way through France on the final leg home. We rode together for a bit, comparing routes the way touring cyclists do, gear, the small daily logistics of life on two wheels before our paths split again and I carried on alone into the Alsace countryside.
A Good Spot to Rest
A few hours in, the path cut alongside a canal, shaded by a dense corridor of trees, when a strange concrete shape came into view half buried in the hillside, its rounded roof draped in ivy. An old bunker, almost certainly a relic from the Second World War, still marking this stretch of the Alsace countryside decades later. Whatever its original purpose, it had clearly found a new one: its worn concrete steps made a perfectly good bench, and with a cold drink from my pannier, it turned into one of the better rest stops of the day.
Into the Open Farmland
Past the canal, the landscape opened up completely. Alsace in July looks like this: endless fields of soybean and corn, ruler straight canal- ide paths, and on a clear day the long blue silhouette of the Vosges (or was it already the first hint of the Jura?) tracing the horizon. The heat built steadily through the afternoon, the kind of dry, bright heat that makes shade under a roadside tree feel like a small luxury.
Riding here is less about dramatic scenery and more about rhythm long straight stretches, the hum of tires on smooth asphalt, villages with church spires rising out of the fields every ten or fifteen kilometers. It’s the kind of day that tests patience more than legs.
Arrival at Camping L’Orée du Bois
With the early start and the flat terrain, there was no need to rush the final stretch. By early evening I rolled into the small village of Geiswasser and found Camping L’Orée du Bois a quiet, low key site that turned out to be exactly what the day called for. The owner went out of her way to help me get power to my tent, digging out an extension cable so I could actually charge my devices overnight, a small gesture that made a real difference after days of rationing battery life.
A relaxed day, start to finish proof that not every touring day needs to be a battle. Sometimes the best ones are the ones where nothing goes wrong.
The next day, already day 7 i’am heading to Basel.
