Day 23: Churwalden, Switzerland

Stats: 49.64km in 3hrs 10 mins. Up, showered, packed in the rain and enjoyed another full breakfast at the hotel with delicious eggs from our chicken and nuggets! Set off along the Rhine route again for approx 40km on the flat to Chur... the foot of the Alps. We met mum for lunch and then began our 10km climb up to 1084m... we believe higher than snowdon! The ride was tough but not as bad as it could have been with our bags having been offloaded into the car. We got soaked on the way up with an intense short downpour. We met mum sipping a latte at her hotel which was perfectly situated opposite the campsite. She had already set up our tent to dry out from the morning. We did a quick food shop in the very expensive co-op and had a picnic at the campsite with an amazing backdrop. We again retreated to enjoy the luxuries of the hotel and take full advantage of all that was on offer!

Day 22: Vaduz, Liechtenstein

We all showered and met up for breakfast at the hotel at 9am. It was a gorgeous breakfast and we all made the most of it! We drove to a small village near Appenzel and took an extremely expensive cable car to the summit of an Alp that was approx 1,600m. It was quite overcast and windy and the very high cable car was very nerve racking, well for Kris anyway! The views from the top were awesome as the bad weather started to clear. We had a hot chocolate and decided it would be a good idea to hike down again. We managed to sell our return tickets and set off on our downward hike for 1hr 30min. On the way down we came across a huge patch of ice that we had to cross. This was very narrow and slippery. Kris in his infinite wisdom decided it would be fun to slide down... as you do. Mum more sensibly returned in the cable car and hiked around on ground level. We returned to Vaduz for food shop for dinner and more border stamps for parents passports then off to the campsite for salad and wine. We then made our way back to the hotel to chill out and get an early night to tackle the Alps in the morning!

Day 21: Vaduz, Liechtenstein

Today was time for a day off! Although we did cycle back along the road to the city centre. We got an official stamp in our passports for crossing the border and enjoyed brunch at the co-op. Al returned to camp to have a relaxing day and recover while Kris had the urge to cycle further up to a castle on a hill and then hike up a mountain with a bounce in his step! I dont know where he gets the energy from! We found accomodation for Als parents as we were expecting them late in the day however they arrived ahead of schedule and we got to spend the majority of the day together. We chatted and caught up on all the gossip until Kris returned from his hike. We took a ride in the car up to the highest town in the area at an elevation of 1,600m and our heads were all over the place especially as we intend on cycling up to 2,300m! Another co-op stop to buy fresh salad and returned to the campsite to dine in style. We got to experience a few hours of cleanliness bliss in my parents lovely hotel room and a cuppa PG! Kris offloaded our 550 photos onto his laptop to make room for more! It was a lovely hot and clear sunny day and we got to see more of the amazing scenery that surrounds us.

Day 20: Vaduz, Liechtenstein via Austria

Stats... 76km in 4hrs 40mins. We continued the bike paths along the lake edge for a further 25km until our path met the River Rhine again. We followed the Rhine south briefly through Austria and into Liechtenstein. We are therefore on country number 7! The weather was muggy, and hot all day and without seeing the sun we feel like we have had too much of it today! We arrived at the one and only campsite in the country and set up camp. The headwind as we made our way South was quite strong and according to local opinion this is very unusual for this time of year. They have had more than normal snowfall and fear of avalanches closing some passes through the Alps. Apparantly the roads in the Alps have been cleared but the snow is so deep it is higher than the cars! Hmm. The Alps have been a breathtaking backdrop every way we look for the past two days, scary, exciting and amazing.

Day 19: Lake Constance, Switzerland

Stats... 19.83km, 1hr 13 mins. We had a terrible nights sleep in the hall, it was very hot and muggy. We are both now feeling ill. We left early as we were desperate for a breeze from cycling. We joined the bike path alongside the lake until after approx 10km we found a coop to buy breakfast. We thought we would wait until we found a nice spot on the lake to eat and a further 10km on we found a campsite with a great view from the tenting area. Thus we decided to not only stop for breakfast, but to stop for the day! We sunbathed, paddled, read books and had a left handed throwing competition... Al won! Kris filled in with 9 other older ladies to play volleyball to make 5 a side. During the night we had strong gales and woke up to find half a tree laying on the floor surrounding the tent!

Lake Constance, Switzerland

Day 18

Stats... 57km in 3hrs 30mins. Unfortunately Kris has woken up with man flu so we had to take it easy today! We did a good shop at the coop then enjoyed a leisurely breakfast consisting of fresh strawberries, fresh orange juice and chocolate spread on croissants. Left at 11am ish and made our way along a very beautiful road that followed the edge of Lake Constance. We stopped in a small village that was quaint with all the buildings being decorated with fine art. We passed through Constance itself fairly swiftly as it was extremely hectic. We decided to stop at the next campsite which was right on the water edge. We were informed that they do accomodate tents but it was not wise as they have foxes that seem to attack people and tents in the hunt for food! As a result they allowed us their sports hall to sleep in so now we are afraid of bats and rats! Looking forward to a good nights sleep!

Schaffhausen, Switzerland

Day 17

Stats... 50km and 3hrs 5mins cycling... the days are getting shorter! However, this is our 7th day on the trot. It was slightly overcast during the day but opened up to beautiful sunshine in the afternoon. We reeped the benefits of the recent climbs as today was mostly downhill. We crossed another border from Germany to Switzerland... our 5th country! Our highlight of the day was going to the Rhine Falls which is a 23 metre waterfall and is the largest in Europe. You were able to stand on a platform hanging right over the fast running waters that turned your stomach! Leaving the falls behind us and starting to follow the Rhine again along to Lake Constance we caught our first glimpse of the snow capped Alps! Kris excited, Alison not so excited. Kris was feeling slightly under the weather so we stopped at the first campsite we came across. We played more ping pong whilst we did a clothes wash. The campsite is lovely being so close to the River edge.

Pfohren, Germany

Day 16

Stats... 62 km in 4hrs 10 mins. It rained and spitted on us all day! To top that our morning started with a 2hr climb of 12km out of the campsite up to a Cuckoo Clock Museum in the heart of the Black Forest. We did a tour of the museum and witnessed 100 old timers arriving (not old people as we thought, but old cars!) This was an interesting break in cycling until we came to get our heavy bikes out of the car park without scratching the them or the cars! As it continued to rain we again decided to cut our day short and stop at the nearest campsite which happened to be at the start of the Danube River. As a result we were joined by loads of other cycle tourers who were very interesting to share stories with. We had dinner in the restaurant which was lovely and went with our fellow tourers to a local village music festival. This was an experience and we stood out like a sore thumb with our friends dressed from head to toe in high visibility rainwear. We played yahtzee and between us got 5 yahtzees in one game... we thought this was worth recording!

Simonswald, Germany

Day 15

Stats... 64km in 4hrs. Had a great days cycling as it was flat cycle paths all the way into the Black Forest. The scenery was amazing and the fact that we were going between all the hills rather than over them was rather appealing. We intended to cycle further but we came across a campsite and the tourist info said it was the last one in our direction together with the weather being boiling we decided to call it a day and sleep in the sun. We played the animal noise game today, which as you may imagine involved making as many animal noises as we could think of. Sounds crazy but passes the miles. We played table tennis in the campsite... you can guess who won.

Schuttern, Germany

Day 14

Stats... 73km, 4hrs. Had an extremely long lay in and left at 12 noon! We had breakfast with our German neighbours and borrowed their milk for a cuppa tea!. We had a crazy conversation with their 4 year old son in English with him replying in German... neither of us had a clue! We followed a bike path along the Rhine all the way to our campsite for the night. It was a perfectly flat route and we had slight wind behind us so we made our highest average speed so far.

We stopped and asked a nice couple for directions and later met them outside a closed supermarket as it was another bank holiday in Southern Germany! We were starving as we had no food supplies and they offered us to go back to theirs for lunch. We accepted and Michael helped us out with routes and maps while his wife made us lunch and a doggy bag! Thanks!

We had a random pick of dinner from the menu in the restaurant campsite which turned out to be a good choice then returned to the tent to study maps and watch tv on the ipod. We have decided to slightly adjust our route which takes us through the black forest and around Lake Constance which will be beautiful.

Stollhofen, Germany

Day 13

Stats... 105km, 6hrs. The day started off having to correct our 6km diversion from yesterday, frustratingly if we had continued for another 15km last night we would of had our pick of campsites. The ride took us on a long straight road through amazing scenery in a forrest via undulating hills. This together with our ipods lead to a high average speed and the clicks were flying past. We crossed again from France to Germany over the river Rhine and found a campsite on the outskirts of Baden Baden. Kris is happy as we have managed to find somewhere to watch the champions league final. The campsite is massive so much so the staff get about on a golf cart. We are feeling pretty tired from the last couple of long days on the saddle. Various body parts hurt more than others and Al is suprised that our bums do not hurt the most. I think the specialised saddle I bought is a God send and is working wonders. It was slightly overcast again today and there was a chill in the air. On one stop Kris decided to use one of our hand warmers however, he found that it was most beneficial when placed down his shorts!

Bitche, France

Day 12

Stats... 121km, 7hrs 25mins... ouch! Longest day so far. Left campsite at 9.15am, it was meant to be an early start but it seems the early night wasnt enough! Stopped in a local town for hot chocolate and pastry breakfast. We found the start of a bike path to Saarbruken alongside the river Saar. We left this path approx 5hrs later with the exception of a 10km diversion due to path closure. The riverside path was beautiful and enabled us to get loadsa clicks under our belt in a short time. There was a strong headwind as we broke away from the path and travelled East to Bitche. We were advised by several locals that there was definately a campsite there, however after reaching Bitche it appeared there was not a campsite here but there was one a further 6km in the wrong direction. As it was late we had no choice but to head for it. We passed through military land with gunshots firing left, right and centre... nothing to worry about im sure. Ariving at the campsite we set up and had dinner joined by millions of mossies and midges. Check out our photo for our defence against the biting beasts.

Siersburg, Germany

Day 11

Stats... 66.37km, 4hrs 21 mins and Alisons birthday! Had another leisurely morning and lovely fresh breakfast with Flip. Our hosts sang happy birthday and lit a candle at the stroke of midnight for Al. We would like to say thanks so much to Gina and Flip for everything. Left at 10.30am and weather was bitterly cold and overcast but not raining. We followed a beautiul route out of Luxembourg into Germany and joined a cycle path along side the river mosel. We got slightly lost and ended up crossing from Luxembourg to Germany to Luxembourg to Germany to France to Germany! We came across a campsite and despite being a short day we decided to stop for the night as it was Als birthday. Kris treated me to dinner and ended up eating most of it himself as I ordered steak and it was still mooing! This was not on purpose, we simply could not understand the menu! We went to bed and lights out at 7.30pm... no funny business, just tired!

Exploring Luxembourg

Day 10

Today we had another day of rest to explore Luxembourg and surroundings. We had a leisurely morning with our hosts Gina and Flip. Our breakfast was fresh pastries, bread and cakes from the local patisserie together with a variety of jams, honey and grapes... lovely. We all took a short ride in the car to take Flip to work and see the sights on the way back. We both then walked into the city centre to do our touristy bit and visit the boch casemates. These are underground tunnels used in the world war to shelter the army etc. We had lunch in the Grund and walked back for a siesta! We were up late last night sharing thoughts and stories with our kind hosts.

We are off to the cinema soon and then to pick Flip up from work. Kris is attempting to service our bikes quickly as they are now making a few strange noises having been broken in with a few hundred kms. Its my 28th birthday tomorrow and I shall be spending it cycling as far as I can for as long as I can as fast as I can. I never imagined this would be the way I would be spending my late twenties!

Mersch to Luxembourg City Centre

Kris, Alison and our host Gina

Day 9

Stats
Distance 21.11 km
Ride time 1hr 22min
Average Speed 15.60 kmph

Today was a nice and easy cruise into LUX city centre. We had a late wake up call and then followed a river into the city. However, the heavens opened up for about an hour and we got wet. We managed to locate our host who showed us around the centre. We had a lovely pizza and beer in the main square and watched the world go by whilst listening to a live brass band playing the Rocky theme tune.

The rest of the day we chilled as the previous week has finally caught up with us.



This Video is from yesterday and is an example of the hills;

Mammouth cycle to Mersch, Luxembourg

Day 8

Stats... 112km, 7hrs 29min, average speed 15.15kmh and top speed of 48kmh cycle to Mersch, Luxembourg. OH MY GOD...HILLS, HILLS, HILLS and some more HILLS and did I mention HILLS?! We were just praying that they were very tall trees in the distance, but no, they were hills. However, the scenery was spectacular. We glided through tall pine trees and sweated up 3km climbs. I think we are lost and are acually mid Alps?! We crossed the border from belgium to luxembourg mid afternoon. The weather started as drissle and eventually brightened up. We were heading for a campsite marked on the map and after reaching the small village, we found that it had closed 10years previous! After Kris usual well practiced plea of trying to score a free bed in some random persons house failed, we got back on the saddle and cycled another 10 clicks of hilly surroundings and the campsite was a sight for sore eyes! Tomorrow we are in Luxembourg city and will be losing our hospitallity club virginity to a lady named Gina.

Grottes de Hans - caves

Day 7

Stats... 45km, 2hrs 30min cycle to Grottes de Hans in the Hans sur lesse valley. Sounds like a short easy day but dont be fooled it was extremely hilly. Our sole goal was to make to the Grotte de Hans which are the most impressive caves in Belgium. They are horizontal caves that drop to 105km and they were really quite impressive! The ticket included a train ride to the entrance of the caves, a guided tour through and a boat ride out. We had hundreds of annoying school kids on our tour as it is school holidays. We camped just outside the caves and found that Kris back panier had broke in exactly the same way as mine. With borrowing spare parts from our supplies, tools from Gavin our GB neighbour and the ingenious idea from Al of using beer lids as washers we fixed it. You can call us Jim from now on! Kris was very impressed with this idea as we had to go buy some beers! The showers were lovely but there were thousands of flies!!! Al got in the tent as it started to rain and moved her sleeping bag only to be swarmed with at least a million flies! We spent the next two hours fly herding and it appears that flies do not want to go outside into the rain as much as we dont.

Camping De Bocq - Day off!

Day 6

Today we took an unplanned day off. The campsite was too good to pass through. We had a lay in and spent lots of time chatting with our kind neighbours Barry and Yoco from The Netherlands. We were spoilt with tea and cake! If there were more peolpe in the world like them it would be a much nicer and better place... our thanks go to them, however please keep your shirt on next time Barry! We attempted a 8km walk through the local forrest which apparantly was easy to follow and a 6 year old could do it... needless to say we set off on completely the wrong track and came out by a quarry on private land! I blame Kris however I was using the map as a fan due to the heat! Kris continued to make his own track up to a cliff edge overlooking the campsite while I found the correct track back to the tent. Guess whos idea it was to go hiking on our day off from cycling!

Camping De Bocq - South Belgium

Day 5

Stats... 105km and 6hrs 41 mins. Total distance so far is 357km! We had an eventful day as Als panier bag broke, Kris back break stopped working and we had to climb a hill of 11 percent gradient to our campsite for the night. It was well worth the climb in the end as our tent is pitched right on the river edge in amongst a beautiful forrest. Kris had the urge to jump straight into the river which saved us buying a 1 euro shower token... tight arse! We have lovely neighbours who have helped us to fix Als bag and supply us with shower gel etc as ours was pinched from the shower block! The owner of the campsite also had the tools to fix kris break so we are back on track. The weather is still outstanding but expected to turn in the next couple of days. We did not quite reach our destination of the caves due to everything breaking but we hope to be there tomorrow.

Made it to Brussels

Day 3

Stats... 85km, 6hrs to Brussels! Again temp approx 30 degrees. First experience of hills, trying to remember what goes up must come down so we are now expecting a huge down hill very soon! We were accompanied by a couple of elderly gentlemen on the last stretch, to be specific they were 71 and 84 yrs old and we had trouble keeping up them! No joke... they were incredible. We managed to reboot the ipod and found awesome campsite and relaxed with a couple of cold beers. Treated ourselves to dinner in a local restaurant.

Day 4

Stats... First day off! And it was very welcome! Woke up leisurely to cockerals crowing again and made our way by bus/tram into Brussels city centre. Another soaringly hot day but still bank holiday so all major sites closed. Nevertheless, we visited the famous little boy pissing fountain, the grand place and the european parliment buildings. Tonight we shall treat ourselves with camp cooked pasta and tomato sauce and fruit salad out of a tin for afters. Thanks to everyone for your kind words of support and donations. We have now topped the 1,000 pounds mark which is not bad going.

Tomorrow is a big day, we are aiming to reach our first UNESCO World Heritage caves in Rochfort so fingers crossed for us. It is predicted to continue at 30 degrees for another week so we are doing a rain dance. Hope you are having fun at work!