Wednesday 30th May: Ballum nr Ribe

I guess, even imagine that we might think of today as the first day of our trip. Two days of driving but today no miles, no motorways and no traffic jams.

We are on a camp site at a small place called Ballum, about 20 miles north of the border. The sea is a mile away to the west over fields and it is quiet. Indeed at times all we can hear are the birds: and they are noisy! Rampaging through the tress, hunting for food, they add a different dimension to the usual sounds of everyday life in Dawlish.

One of my aims on this trip is to read a few books. I have now finished the first, a police procedural that is somehow different from most that I have come across so far. It's a translation from the French and called Alex, written by Pierre Lemaitre. Now this Pierre just happens to be well known in crime writing and is highly respected in France. Not that I knew this when I bought it in Bath. It is quite a read.

It's two main protagonists are presented through their inner thoughts so the story evolves partly from their different perspectives. Both have problems only one of which emerges during most of the book. The Alex of the title pursues a murderous campaign, but the reasons only become clear much, much later. It is also rather stomach churning at times. An interesting read!

In the continuing saga of 'One of those days", we/I hit two problems.

1 Flat tyre

2 Battery missing

We decided to try cyclin g today. First problem the flat tyre on my bike. Well, that's easy to fix so I upturned the bike and…where is my battery?? Yes, I have a battery driven bike, sort of. Anyway, it was not in its place. Bike no us without it as I cannot change gear. Sixty minutes later I had hopefully secured a replacement and will await its arrival tomorrow.

After that we went for a walk around the little town and that proved interesting. Quiet, barely a soul moving, individual houses of various vintages and a shop.. with ice creams! And food for us, although in a xenophobic fashion that perhaps mirrors their current political leaning, refusing to accept 'foreign' cards. I am surprised that we weren't rushed out of the shop as nasty foreigners. But, then again, we had money so that was OK.