I like a salty savoury snack and I do enjoy a good pretzel. Just like those big doughy things you buy from street vendors in New York, as well as the baked Salz Stangen you can buy from Aldi, nothing like a good salty pretzel blow out after a long day in the saddle.

Mostly we follow the Rhine Euro Velo Route 15 through gentle farmland trimmed with forest and wild flowers. In these ancient places older people tend to mature gardens ripe with budding young fruit. We never seem too far from a small hamlet town village or city names previously unknown become welcome cafe or camping breaks: Opperheim, Mannhein, Speyer, Germershein. Sometimes the path is narrow or unmarked and we get lost frequently only to find our way again. We are using a German Language map that follows the length of the Rhine from Holland to Switzerland.

Just before Karlsruhe, the Rhine becomes the border between Germany and the Alsace region of France. We crossed into France and almost immediately everything changed and not only the language, which provides Therese with the perfect opportunity to practice her school French. The signage and architecture too changes. Our greetings to other cyclists of ‘Ello and Bonjour replace Morgen and Guten Tag.

It’s early summer and nature’s bounty is in abundance. Ripening cherry trees line the roadway and out along the cycle paths we wave our hands through think crops of barley as we whoosh past in the warm sunshine.

I’m fascinated by what looks like Tudor style Architecture only more colourful and how these buildings have been adapted and retro fitted to suit modern usage.