Switzerland. Yay!! German cyclists are beginning to annoy me. In England, not all bikes seem to be fitted with bells. Those that have bells may or may not use them when approaching other cyclists and pedestrians from behind. Whatever the rights and wrongs of this (and I believe bells to be a necessary part of cycling), us Brits, using free choice, display a variety of behaviours. Not so the Germans. Virtually every bike has a bell (probably by law??). But they ...

Had a late start today we had to recover from yesterday's testing stage. We said "non" to the hotel's breakfast (€16) and troughed at a local bagel joint. Jackie had a fruity yoghourt and a giant muffin. I had a big slice of summer fruits cheesecake (sorry Waynetta!). We left Strasbourg at around 12 noon. For a change we moved across to the east (German) side of the Rhine. This side was much less populated with cyclists. We soon found out why: the cycle track...

The Rhine has swung right/west into France. We put in a big day. Starting at 0810hrs, we pedalled hard and made it to Strasbourg by late afternoon. 110 miles. I had hoped that we might have got to Basel by Monday for the England qualifier. But it was a bridge too far. Would've finished us off. She wasn't keen either. The route was very scenic. There was not a breath of wind in the morning. And a light headwind on the afternoon. For much of the day we tracked ...

Got off to a slow start today. We had a look around Eltville. But we couldn't see the river due to the early morning mist. I broke my cycling glasses. We lost the iPhone charger. But, worst still, I noticed (after some pedalling), that I only had one glove: the right. We returned to the hotel but no one was there do we had to wait until someone turned up. Unfortunately, the glove was not inside. Where was it?? Lost! Forgetting the glove, and having taped up my...

Today was a lovely day on the Rhine. This is what we've come for. We rolled out of Bonn early. Around 8am. There was a mist hanging over the river and not a breath of air. As we headed south, the only sound I heard was the gentle rhythmic sigh of my rawhide saddle, as it adjusted to the stresses and strains. As the morning wore on the mists were burnt off by the sun to reveal a hot and sunny day. The were numerous river birds, red squirrels and lizards to obser...