Afternoon fun in the German sun - Breisach am Rhein

Photos from Day 2

Day 2 Breisach am Rhein to Strasbourg

Ok for those interested in stats: 55.10 miles, 2688 calories burned and 4hr 24 cycling time with an average speed of 13mi an hour. Not bad!
It was a brilliant cycling day. The predicted rain was gone and instead we had cloudcover - which we needed after yesterday's sunburn. It was hot and humid and spectacular.
The small French villages are very quaint. They all have German names e.g. Bindernheim, Witternheim, Schwobsheim but in reality they are very French! This stems probably from a time when this region went from Germany to France due to either border disputes or wars. We saw some really spectacular houses with lots and lots of flowerbaskets drooping over windowsills and beautifully painted houses, particularly 2 purple ones.
The pictures to the blog post will follow later as I have them separate on my phone. Marckolsheim was very special and it got 4 stars on the Villages Fleurie competition. After weaving our way through the villages, we turned onto the towpath along the Canal du Rhône du Rhin which took us straight into Strasbourg. Lovely tarmaced surface, the only problem here are some tree roots which made some surfaces a bit bumpy.
Lunch was from a supermarket in Boofzheim and were 4 Herta sausages, 4 doughnuts, 2 bananas and 2 Heinekens. Shared between 2! A good carbo cycling lunch.
We are in good accommodation tonight, our first hotel (Comfort Inn). The youth hostels were so far very kind to us as even though we were booked into female and male dorms, we've been sharing a bedroom at no extra cost.
Tomorrow is an even longer day with 63 miles planned. But having got to Strasbourg in such good time, gives us now the opportunity to go and do some sightseeing in Strasbourg.

Day 1 Basel to Breisach

After a fabulous night's sleep with an equally lovely breakfast it was time to go. The Garmin played up (why does this always happen on a big ride?) so I had to revert another way of getting the route displayed which is show on map instead of navigate.

A quick photo shoot on the bridge and we were off. The route was very mixed today, some major off road sections with difficult wet bits to navigate and fabulous French cycle ways alongside the main road. For a change we also had a tailwind for the last 10 miles so we made up with some fast riding.

Breisach is delightful with lots of holidaymakers, watersports and fabulous Rhine cruise boats. There was also an impressive lock system, but not as impressive as the water regulation we saw at Kembs which took about 200 years to build. It also has an impressive church on top of a hill in the town.

The day started with rain but it stopped before we left Lörrach and then the sun turned hot. I definitely have sunburn and so does Stephen. A bit of suntan lotion tomorrow will be needed.

47 miles done today and 51 miles waiting tomorrow.

Day 0

Bikes on top of each other

Leaving Hull

I don't know why but I couldn't really sleep last night. It might have been the fact that I ate too much at the buffet or the gentle swaying of the Ferry or even the narrow cabin bed but I didn't sleep very well. I woke up at 5.49am, got up and had a shower. Whilst in the shower, the announcement for breakfast came over the internal cabin speakers.
Talking about food, I am absolutely starving! Breakfast was the last time I ate. Some bad planning, mostly not having anything to drink either apart from the last water from my bike bottle that was left from a ride. The thing is, after breakfast we made our way to deck and drank in the industrial sites of Europoort. Huge ships came past which made us take lovely pictures. Getting off the boat was so easy, it was the Dutch way as bikes get priority so we whizzed down the ramp to passport control. In the meantime, I was scanning the area to see where our taxi was - and found him, just beyond passport control. This was a taxi which I mostly correspond with and arranged with, through Twitter. DE REYERTRAVEL!  Worth contacting them if you need transport (with bikes) from Europoort to Rotterdam.
We made it to the station in good time where I had to queue for about 30 minutes to buy bike tickets, yes bikes need to pay too here in Europe. The platform was overcrowded with people who missed an earlier train so ours was very full. Bikes were piled onto of each other to ensure thy are all onboard. The drama queen winked at us in Brussels when the train to Based bore down. We were on te train having made it to the right platform with fully laden bikes when the announcement came that the locomotive has failed to start. So back onto the platform, down the stairs to another platform for a train to Luxembourg which we knew was the way we were going to go.
Getting to Luxembourg was strange as on the platform next to ours (where we got in), stood a Based train, similar to the one that broke in Brussels AND it is 50 minutes delayed. Really odd. Anyway, got on stand we are now about 45 minutes from our destination.
No food or water for the last 12 hours is quite challenging, so I think we will find somewhere to get a drink or a bite to eat as soon as we get there as the hostel shuts at 10pm and I'm not sure if they are still serving food.
I was right, they wee not serving food at 9.45 but then who would? Luckily we stopped at a small supermarket between Basel and Lörrach and got two tubs of Pringles, a 1.5 litre Sprite, a pepperami in a breadstick and some cup a soup which we will not make.
I've just worked out, we've started our journey this morning in Holland, next stop was Belgium, the stop after that was Luxembourg. After Luxembourg we went south through France, stopped in Switzerland and then biked through the border to sleep in Germany!! No wonder I am tired! 6 countries in one day, phew !

Enjoying the sunshine on the Ferry

Long train ride from Luxembourg to Basel 

Coming into Europoort

De Reyertravel brought us safely to Rotterdam station with a lovely minibus 

Day minus one

<p>Thunderbolt and lightening woke me up during the middle of the night, and I wear earplugs! Forecast said that there would be a serious band of rain sweeping over the UK so I thought that must be it. However, when I woke up at 6.30am, after my struggle to fall asleep again, the rain was hammering it down outside. Weather reports came in of serious flooding alerts across Yorkshire, a total of about 90. This didn't bode very well for our cross Yorkshire train trip towards Hull at all. I was on Twitter to National Rail probably thrice who reassured me that our journey seems still viable.</p>
<p>We got seriously drenched during our ride to the station. The rain was seeping into my eyes and at one time I couldn't see properly whilst dodging puddles of water. We got to the station with an hour to spare which was great to dry off (a bit). The train was on time but oh ever so slow. Everytime it stopped I thought might missed some four connections. As we were travelling with bikes, they gave us a tedious journey - Chester to Stockport to Doncaster to Hull. So 2 changes all together. The train at Stockport was 5 minutes late arriving which turned into a bad 20 minutes along the way, so we missed the Beverley train at Doncaster.</p>
<p>Luckily we managed to get onto another Hull train 20 minutes later. </p>
<p>Now more drama! Planning ahead I switched on my Garmin only to find that no saved rides can be found. WHAT????? I've put them on myself AND checked this morning if they were on it. (Did I have a precondition or what?) The only explanation is that I 've put them into a folder on the Garmin which isn't accessible. How silly is that?? Lesson to self: Always check the rides after you have loaded them on and avoid unnecessary stress.</p>
<p>The drama queen wasn't done with us yet as Stephen got a bad puncture as we were&nbsp; trying to find our way to the Ferry port (remember no Garmin?)</p>
<p>Well, we got on the boat and has started to relax. The dinner was good and my watch has been adjusted to GMT +1

Breakfast is at 7am which is 6am UK time. Mmm perhaps time to go to bed.

10 hrs to go

Last checks have been made and we are ready to start. I was in Coventry today for work but was very conscious that I need to get home safely to start the holiday!

Hideous journey to Coventry today as there was bus at the Toll booth that was searched due to terrorist activities - turns out to be someone with an electronic cigarette! All this caused the M6 toll to be shut at the most critical time of the day with disastrous results for the usual M6 through Birmingham.

I arrived safely and did a last check on paperwork to ensure that I have all the papers for our bookings and travel. I also checked arrivals and departures for our train from Rotterdam to Basel and also found platform details. A plastic wallet for my train reservation was found and attached to my seat pillar post.

So sleep and off we go!