Mulhouse to Basel

I have finally made it to Basel but not quite to Switzerland yet. I'm camped on the French side of the city. I very slowly packed up this morning and got myself moving. I'm still sick but starting to feel better.

I rode along a canal that runs parallel to ze Rhine most of the way. It was a really good ride although some roadworks made it tricky to get out of Mulhouse. It was only 37km and was very easy, even with how I've been feeling. In London when I first got my bike I did a 38km ride to see if I could and was totally knackered and could barely walk afterwards. It's strange to feel like I've done nothing today for riding the same distance.

There were loads of people on the trail today. Plenty of cyclists and walkers as well, armed with their ski stocks. I can only assume they are desperately searching for some summertime snowfall.

Basel looks like it might be an interesting, modern city. But I don't intend on finding out. I ventured across the river to the German bit of town and the difference to the French side was stark. It was positively bustling. People in a hurry everywhere. It may be like any city that is different across the river, but there were some definite German vs French differences.

Although I only know about 10 words of French (I know 6 of the numbers, but not the first 6) I have become accustomed to the signs. I realised this in the German supermarket, where I felt totally lost. I stood in the bread aisle trying to work out why all the bread had 'toast' written on it. I thought it might be how fruits de mer isn't really fruit at all. I didn't figure it out so I got a roll instead.

I don't know the word for ham in German, but ham is pretty easy to spot. But it all seemed to have "gut" written on it, which seemed to risky. So I got corned beef instead. When I got back it had gut written on it too. Things are much cheaper though. Probably because they are made of guts.

There were also dozens of people queuing with full trolleys and green sheets of old school computer paper. The stuff with the holes down the sides. I don't know what they were doing and I was worried I'd be given a strange sheet of antique paper and sent into an unexplained queue. I'm sure that's how genocides start.

I'm back on the French side now. Like I said, I don't intend on exploring Basel, I'm really keen to get through it and back on the cycle paths. If you want to find where I am, look for where the 3 borders meet (it's in the river) and I'm a few hundred metres north-west of there. Specifically, I'm in the bathroom of the campsite.

If you want to give me money go here:

http://www.gofundme.com/rk3brs7s

I've been thinking about having a try at real life begging. I've got the outfit for it.