Day 5: Troyon to Heming

Photos from the trip, finally:
Just checking the camera works, Luke in the internet cafe, and me outside eating as usual. The stupid thing on my head is the solar charger. It doesnt work verz well despite the effort i went to positioning it for maximum sumlight!



Quarter to 5 in Nancy, France and it's still fricking hot. We got toasted by the sun on the road up here so have holed up in an internet cafe to wait for it to cool down. We've got a 55 mile slog to the campsite I've booked for tonight so not too much time for reflexion.

France has been really cool. There was a day and a half crappy cycling as we got away from the coast, fairly flat and featureless but a slight tailwind pushed us along. The food is exceptional whereever you go, I still have three or four pain o chocolats from this mornings pattiserie waiting to eat in the bag. And i have to say the people are all really pleasent (although hardly anyone speaks much English). Cyclists are defintely treated with more respect than in the UK, and Ive had a few funny conversations with people asking us where we're going. Cant wait for the day when people are much more surprised that we've come from England rather than that we're going to Romania.

We set ourselves a target of the big alpine ascent into the top of the Danube for Friday (just checked the forecast, heavy rain), so its been a bit of a push through France. The iphone battery conked out and the satnav is on its last legs, just about being kept alive by my solar charger (note to manufacturer: much room for improvement). We've slept rough in any place we could find that was hidden from the road, which while it has its merits, is doing nothing for our state of clenliness, so tonights campsite and the prospect of a warm shower is very much looked forward to. I bought a camera just now so hopefully some photos will start to appear, my brilliant plan to blog and take photos with the iphone didnt count on a dead battery and no power points, so good old fashioned internet cafes and digital camera photos itll have to be.

Tomorrow night we'll be crossing the Germany border (hopefully), and then we'll book into a hotel in preparation for the toughest climb either of us has ever done...

From Nancy, France
Phil