Don't mention the war!

The delightful added bonus of spending the previous night in Innsbruck was that we got to spend most of the day riding through Germany. Now you'd be wrong to detect a hint of sarcasm in my words. That said, much of the country once you leave the Alpine region is pretty unimpressive. This assessment may have something to do with the rain that poured the moment we crossed the border, the first inclement weather we've experienced on the entire trip. This wasn't a good moment to being trying to recall which pannier your wet gear was in or even if it might be lying in the corner of a hotel room in Barcelona. Special mention must be made of the roadworks around Kingsruhe which made us all wonder why we bothered with Monte Carlo or Lake Garda. Ok, yes I admit I'm being sarcastic now. Like sunshine after rain however (which is actually what we got) the last 150 miles of the day took in much more pleasing scenery, sweeping fast roads through rolling pine forested hills until we crossed our third international border of the day and somewhat incredibly found Luxembourg which as you'd expect of any country dwarfed by it's neighbours is influenced by bits of each. They do seem to have an odd love of push bikes and when Digger and I arrived (at this point we'd already lost Tony and then Pete) and inevitably took another wrong turn we found the city cordoned off so that men in Lycra could practise this unnatural pursuit. Well, if it doesn't use petrol there's not much point... is there?

The city has much to commend it and afforded us an interesting evening which kicked off at the Indian across the road and culminated in the bar next to the hotel... no stone left unturned.

At this point in the trip our minds begin to turn to the impending end of the tour and what life will be like when you've got to do something other than get on a bike each morning, ride across hill, plain and dale then eat drink and be merry until it all starts again the next day (although that does actually pretty much describe Tony's life anyway). It'll be tough but we'll cope :)



Falling asleep on the blog...