Day 12 & 13 - rest days in Karlsruhe

Yes, they were fantastic rest days, we have not seen Bill and Ali and family for 2 years and it was great to catch up with them. Ali totally spoilt us, cooking great food, washing our clothes and even giving Paula and myself a massage. And Bill fixed my front pannier rack, and together we drank lots of beer. All the kids got on. Rest playing cards, swimming and chilling out.

On Saturday, All the kids had a lie in, Chris winning by sleeping to the afternoon. We all went to the local outside swimming pool in the afternoon, which is just a 5 minute walk. The weather is still in the 30s but not quite as hot as the last 2 days cycling. One thing great about Germany is their outside swimming pools, this one has a 50m pool plus 2 other pools and water slides. There was also an U14s  football tournament planned. 5 of our children played against a local 9 year old boys team. They had to lend us their girl to make it a 6 aside game. It was good close game, the German boys were very good and narrowly won 1-0, well at least it was not penalties!

Sunday was also another relaxing day and we all went for a short bike ride to Etlingen for chicken and chips and ice cream.

Unfortunately it was soon time to leave and we headed off to Strasbourg this morning.

Stopping for 2 days makes restarting really hard. Kate in particular has had enough. We have 2 hot and flat days still following the Rhine towards Basel, followed by 3 hilly days, and the weather is due to break on Wednesday.. It is going to be tough. We have left a pannier in Karlsruhe, with some clothes, maps etc. to try and further reduce the load for the hills. Although there is still too many creams, lotions, make up etc for my liking. All I have is a razor and 2 backside creams! And I have even left one of those in Karlsruhe!!

Cheers for now, Brendan