After yesterdays marathon effort we decided on a short day today. Mike chose a campground about 30kms away and we headed there.

Our first stop was Aldi as we’re we’re really low on supplies and water. Then we crossed the Rhine on a ferry.

We had a vicious head wind today and it was slow going. We didn’t get to Mikes chosen spot until about 1.30pm. It was a funny place where we had to ring a bell and wait to be let in. A girl hiker was already there and they let us all in at the same time.

Once we got inside I was constantly averting my eyes as everyone was naked. They showed us to a place where we could put up our tent but there was no shade. And it was hot!

Mike assured me he’d checked with them that I could be there. But I thought I’d better double check. I didn’t want to get in trouble for wearing my clothes to the bathroom.

The lady said no, I must take my clothes off to stay there. Seriously! The hiker translated for me, also taken by surprise. She said she had heard the place was cheap, but didn’t realise she had to take her clothes off. Anyway, I had no interest is sitting around all afternoon in full sun with no clothes on. Or in full shade for that matter. So we left. The girl decided to stay.

We sat down by the river and ate a banana baguette, our new favourite lunch. We found a campsite 16 kms away and navigated there. It is Saturday night and the campsite is very busy. It’s like our first night in Germany all over again. And it’s cost us $24 to stay!

We’re getting a bit grumpy with the busy expensive campgrounds in Germany. In fact, everything is more expensive than France. And the heat is hard work, and another heat wave is coming next week. We’ll keep an eye on it and get early starts when required.

We thought about eating in the camp restaurant but have decided we have spent too much money on camping already so Mike is making tuna pasta for dinner.

After showering and eating we felt much better and we’re actually camped in a really nice spot next to the Rhine overlooking the old town of Mainz on the other side. We’ll go explore Mainz tomorrow.

We got away from camp at 9am and it was already pretty warm but the path was mostly shaded for most of the morning, so made for pleasant riding.

We crossed into Germany today but we’re not quite sure when it happened. Not long after we found a massive supermarket with absolutely anything and everything in it. I could have stayed in there for hours browsing all the different foods, but Mike was waiting outside in the hot sun so I just got the essentials and got out of there.

I’d picked up a couple of bananas and a baguette for lunch. As we were cycling out of town we passed a MacDonalds. Suddenly banana baguette didn’t sound so appealing. So our first meal this time in Germany was fillet of fish meal! And it was delicious!

After our feast of MacDonalds, we headed on, alongside main roads and busy traffic. We were so spoilt on the Loire river route not having to deal with any of that.

In the afternoon the sun was relentless. There was no shade for miles as we pushed on, dreaming of a cold orangina in an airconditioned bar.

Not long after we came across a bar so we stopped. They didn’t have Orangina but they mixed some orange juice with some soda water and it was as good as.

It was hard to get started again after a rest but after about 15 kms we saw a campground right beside the route.

It was 3.30pm , it was stinking hot and they had a massive big swimming pool. Aka lake!

So we stopped, put up the tent and cooled off in the lake, the first swim of our trip. And the camping is only 11 euros for the night!

Big black clouds are looming and we’re expecting thunder storms later.

For dinner we had banana baguette.

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What a day. We woke up in Germany and we’re going to bed in France.

It’s so confusing being in Germany after all this time in France. I’m bonjouring when I should be morganing, I’m merci-ing then realising my mistake I say bitte when I should be saying danke. I’m all over the place!

It was a crappy old day today. The ride started out quite nice following a gravel path alongside the Rhine river. Mike put up his drone and got a photo of us riding alongside the river. When we stopped and looked back, a passenger jet was heading straight for our drone! Okay it’s not as bad as it sounds. It was way below where the jet was and we brought it down straight away. But we were well over 8 kms from an airport so technically we were okay to fly it.

It was a hot day with very little shade for most of it. 34 degrees and humid and it was hard work.

We are now following Eurovelo 15 which follows the Rhine to Rotterdam. So far it is nowhere near as good as the Loire route we were following. There were times the route had us cycling on main roads with trucks barrelling past.

After a long day of cycling in the heat, we stopped after 60kms at a cheap campground in France, half the price of last nights and not as crowded. This will be our last day in France as we head into Germany tomorrow. Just as well too as it’s Bastille day tomorrow and everything will be shut. Hopefully things will be open in Germany.

We’re just at camp setting up our tent and we’re sweating like little piggies. The guy next to us is huffing and puffing and blowing his air bed up. Now I just need a house made out of gingerbread and I’ll officially be in a fairy tale.

That’s it, and happy wordle-ing.

We had a great rest day in the fairy tale town of Colmar but it was great to be back on the bikes again.

We left Colmar on a very busy road. Thankfully we had a dedicated cycle path but the noise of the traffic was awful. We’ve been so used the the quiet of the cycle paths that we’re not used to all the noise.

We followed a canal path all the way to Strasbourg. You’d think this would be great, but it was very straight with trees either side and occasional glimpses of the canal. It was very monotonous and it dragged on forever. It was the first day I felt a little bored.

But then we crossed over the canal and it became interesting again. The water was so clear and we saw many fish.

We arrived in Strasbourg and immediately wished we hadn’t. It was big and noisy and we couldn’t wait to get out. We cycled out of it and suddenly we were in Germany! The street signs, the language, the food, all different, just by crossing a bridge!

We arrived at the campground and it was chockers. We are next to a school group, tents packed in tight. It is by far the worst place we have camped due to the sheer amount of people. And the most expensive at 28 euros. That’s almost $60 to put up a tent!

The showers are very flash though with plenty of room compared to French ones where you are crammed into a little cubicle. In fact, the shower was almost as big as our one at home.

We also had a lovely meal in the camp restaurant. We like German food.

We did a massive 80 kms today, well massive for us. Almost bed time but I don’t reckon I’ll sleep much with all the snorers. I think some drums just started up near our camp.

Today didn’t turn out quite as planned.

The plan was to cross over the Rhine river into Germany and follow the Rhine up towards Rotterdam.

The Rhine river separates France from Germany and the cycle route goes up both sides of it.

The first part of the plan worked well. We crossed the Rhine, took some photos and were excited to finally be in Germany. Then we met some cycle tourers backtracking.

They said, ‘The Rhine path is closed on the German side. We’ve just done a 25 km detour for nothing so we’re heading back to the French side.’

So we were in Germany for all of 5 minutes before we decided to backtrack too. But first we ate our pain au chocolat.

It was hot today and we were both a bit bothered by our plans being scuppered and having to backtrack about 10kms in total. It wasn’t far, but in the heat of the day it wasn’t much fun.

My knee is starting to hurt again, my body is screaming for a rest day. But the weather is so nice, we just want to keep cycling.

We rode over 70kms today and arrived at our camp very hot and bothered. After getting our tent up and having a shower we are feeling much better.

We had a goats cheese, walnut and pasta salad for dinner as we are low on camping gas. Not many places in France sell the screw in gas bottles, only bayonet type ones. We’ve been trying to get to a Decathlon for days but they’re always too far off the route.

So tomorrow we have made a decision to spend two nights in a town near here and try and figure out where we go from there.

I had a fantastic nights sleep at the nice quiet campground that nobody could find. Our tent was saturated again with dew, but it soon dried out and we were away by about 10.30am.

I felt so much better today after a good nights sleep and it was such a glorious day cycling along, taking our time. The scenery has changed now too, and it’s looking more like Switzerland, and we’re loving it. We followed a river for most of the day, and it was mostly flat.

We may not go down to Basel now as it’s not the direction we are going. We’d have to go down there and back again (80 km round trip there and back detour), and we don’t really like cities that much. So we may continue heading north from Mulhouse up the Rhine towards Rotterdam.

We’ve really got our fitness levels up now, and we are hurtling along the flat at about 18-22 kms per hour and are doing an average of 60 kms per day. We haven’t had a rest day in 10 days, so we’re overdue, but we just want to keep cycling while the weather in nice.

Tonight we are in the town of Montbéliard and there is no camping, so we’re staying at the ibis in the city centre. We didn’t really look around much, just got a salad for dinner, transferred some footage to hard disks, and got our power banks recharged.

Well, today certainly had its up’s and downs. I think being tired had a lot to do with it. So let’s start with last night.

We stopped at a very busy campsite by a lake beach. We put our tent up and a couple of cycle tourists about our age parked their bikes next to us, draped their tent over their bikes, then went to the camp bar.

We also went to the camp bar restaurant for dinner and the couple were still there when we went to bed at 9.30pm. When we got back to out tent and noticed they still hadn’t put their tent up. I thought great, they’re gonna wake us up when they put up their tent in the dark.

Anyway, I fell asleep only to be woken up at 10.30 by clunking, talking and laughing. But it stopped after only a couple of minutes. I thought they got their tent up quickly in the dark.

Then they proceeded to snore, talk and giggle through the night. So I didn’t get much sleep. But when I got up to go to the toilet, their tent still hadn’t been put up. It was lying flat on the ground with the couple inside it, their heads poking out. It must have been freezing. Either they got too drunk to put it up in the dark or their tent is broken. Weird.

It was a stunning day cycling through a gorge with a river running through it, hills looming on either side. It’s starting to feel like Switzerland with the scenery and chalet style houses. We even heard cows with bells!. Switzerland is about 40 kms to our right and if we keep up our Current pace of 60kms per day we should be in Basel in a couple of days.

We stopped at a town called Besançon for lunch. We were going to look around the town but both felt really claustrophobic. It didn’t help that we had to push our bikes through road works with jack hammers hammering away. But we found a small shop and grabbed a couple of salads and ate them by the river.

I suggested staying in the town, but the weather has been so nice for cycling we’re keen to keep moving.

We arrived at the town of Baume les Dames where there is supposed to be camping according to our Cycle route map, but it was not showing up on either Google or the Garmin. When we got to the turn off where the camping was supposed to be and studied our maps, Google and the Garmin. There weren’t any camping signs pointing us off, so we figured it must no longer be there. Our maps are quite old and we’ve had it before where the campgrounds no longer exist.

No problem we thought, there are a couple of hotels in town. I navigated us to a chamber d’ote nearby but they were full. So I found a hotel only 1.2 kms away so we navigated to that. But the maps didn’t mention the giant hill we had to climb to get there!

It was 5pm, we were hot and tired, neither of us able to make a decision. So we thought our only option was to push our bike up this steep hill. It could easily have been in Wellington, it was such hard work. Walk a few steps, stop, breathe, repeat. We cursed our way up the hill, eventually reaching the top before realising we had to go down again!

We took it easy on the downhill, both exhausted by this stage. We found the hotel but the front doors were locked. I found the chef in the restaurant at the back as asked if he had a room.

‘Oui,’ he said and we both collapsed in relief on the seats of the outdoor restaurant.

Five minutes later he came out and said, ‘sorry we are full.’ Our euphoria deflated like a balloon, wondering what we do know.

‘Are there any more hotels?’ Mike asked.

‘There is one, 6 kms up this road. Want me to call for you?’

We looked at the main road leading up a steep hill, trucks barrelling past and thought there is no way in hell we’d be riding up there in the state we were in. I decided to ask if there was camping, knowing there wasn’t but trying my luck.

‘Oui, just 2 kms from here.’

He showed us on a map and it’s in the same place as our map. So why the heck does Google not know about it! Geez, it knows what time I have a shit in the morning, surely it would know where the campgrounds are!

Both feeling relieved but very pissed off, we followed the main road back down to the river thankful that we didn’t have to go back up that steep hill. It was 7pm by the time we found the campsite and after a shower we felt much better.

This town had a decent supermarket but we were too tired to stop and shop so we cooked macaroni with a pepper sauce and dipped our baguette in it . It was actually really nice.