Le Grand Ballon ...Final day of the Alsace Leisure Tour

Ensisheim to Mulhouse 57 miles and 5000 feet of climbing today so not many leisure hours!  We left the hotel on another beautiful morning and could see the peak of our climb in the distance....Le Grand Ballon.
Dad and I huffed and puffed our way to the top of Col Amic and then Le Grand Ballon... all on those green heavy touring bikes.  The weather warmed up considerably today so we were soaked in sweat by the time we reached the summit.  We had a sunny casual picnic lunch by the van and went for ice cream at the top.   Dad had coffee flavor and mine... coconut!  Everything seems to taste better at the top of a climb.  There were huge macarons in the summit shop and amazing looking blueberry and apple tarts, another specialty of the region!

We descended with our bellies full, along fields and rivers to reach our final destination for the week, Mulhouse pronounced MaaLose...  Not Mull House.  It was an amazing week in the Alsace. I love this region so much and will miss the leisure portion next week when we are in the Alps.  Tomorrow we are off on another train and will meet up with Chris and Peter! Au Revoir!



Dinner walk in Mulhouse
Rolling out of hotel
En route to the Le Grand Ballon
There it is
Obligatory Coffee stop before the climb 

Mary and Stephen from Australia
The big group at Coffee. We had to sneak off to start the climb before the Electric bikes rolled out.


Back of our support van...follow for Haribo!

First Col down...

It’s getting hot
Dad sweating it up.
We made it!
Ladybug on Gunther’s shirt, enjoying the salt? Getting a lift to the top
 
tarts in the restaurant

Ice cream -Coco and Cafe

Candies and pastries for sale
Susan with Mary ordering deux boules

Huge macarons of the region 

The group enjoying ice cream


Me at the top

Our new friends, Mary and Stephen picnicking 

Love these flowers dancing in the sky

Kids in Mulhouse cooling off in the heat

A stop along the way 

Some light reading for tonight


Keep looking up~








Comments

  1. barron.mary@gmail.comJuly 8, 2023 at 3:05 AM

    It looks so hot there!! Make sure to keep hydrated! Miss you guys but so glad you are having fun!
    Looking forward to see the family when you meet up!! Love you!! Mom

    ReplyDelete

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