Moutain Dew

Stats and Map, as I could finally upload them

The Alps on the horizon that have been slowly constricting around us since we left Strasbourg are now on our noses, and we've no way to go except up. This day has unfortunately had little to distinguish it; our minds have been focused more on the future hills of Switzerland than the present, and our behaviour today almost seemed to be automatic. It's hardly surprising when it's considered today marks the two week point since we left from Calais. Routine has taken over and only really exceptional circumstances require our full attention.

Colmar was left without too much difficulty and a GPS route which mostly followed main roads was used to arrive at Basel. Terrain would be very much the same whichever route we took and, in lieu of an official cycle path, we followed those which were most direct. John had no problems with his legs which is encouraging, and we were able to eat correctly today so had no problems with energy. Annoyingly for us we ran into the final section of the Rhine route from yesterday to find a "6" in a European circle of stars: the symbol for Eurovelo Route 6, the route we wanted to follow since we first conceptualised cycling Europe yet could find no information, yet here we were, 700miles in and this symbol arrives from nowhere. We followed this to the outskirts of Basel where it promptly disappeared as quickly as it had appeared and were again on our own navigating possibly the largest city we've yet encountered. We're staying in perhaps the only hotel South of the train station (this place is so huge it doesn't seem to have a town centre or commercial road, simply a large train station and a metropolitan sprawl similar to London) to prepare us for our exit tomorrow.

I want to do a large post on Switzerland with terrain maps etc., but I'm unfortunately unable as I have to use the roaming internet which is very costly for uploads. Same goes for the stats/maps and the pictures; I'll have to do it some other time.

We're in German territory now, and my knowledge of German only amounts to what I've learned from WWII shoot-em-'up games, so I'll just have to settle for a traditional closing line of Good Night,

Tom x