A third of the way there!

I feel marginally sorry for the other people in this internet cafe. This is our 4th day of roughing it, and although good for our bank balances, it's definitely not good for George's odour (girls don't smell).

After getting completely drenched in a MASSIVE thunderstorm just before Stuttgart on Thursday, we called it a day after just 102Km in order to dry everything out. We stopped in at a petrol station to ask for directions to a youth hostel. The guy seemed to know everyone who turned up and eventually, after a lot of discussion and phone calls, a guy who's mate owned a hotel arrived and gave George a lift in his 4X4 Porsche to go have a look (showing him photos of his ak 47 on the way - he was some kind of bodyguard/member of the Turkish maffia..) The hotel was a turkish pub with rooms, and we were very grateful for the big discount we were given. We locked our bikes where they told us to and hoped they would still be there in the morning. We were given a guided tour to the Laundrette by Turkish David, who showed us exactly how to work the machines and bought us puncture repair kits. We ordered food later that night at the pub and the waiter served it 10 minutes later and slightly breathless. Turkish pizza, fresh in its kabab shop wrappers. It was amazing! The next day, everything dry, we were ready to continue. Just as the rain started to come down again.

There are a lot of nice people in Germany who have helped us out with bike fixing and route advice - especially Holger and Sylvia from Radspass and Marc from Velo. Also, kind strangers who have let us stay in their log huts/sheds and camp in their fields. The best place we've stayed was on a horse training farm in Gingen belonging to a lovely family - Sylvia, Stephen and their daughter Francis. They even invited us in for a traditional German breakfast the next day. It set us up nicely for climbing over some black forrest mountains to reach the Danube river, or the Donau as it is called here.We'll be following it (more or less) until we reach Passau - hopefully in a few hours after we've bought some maps and decided our route into Czech Republic. It seems there may be a few mountains to conquer.

So, auf wiedersehen Germany. We'll miss the morning bakery stops, but not so much the rain. We've heard that it's lovely and sunny at home. We are not amused.