It rained a little bit, and the grass was very wet, when the slugs and I made ready for the day's stage. I was in low spirits, because I yesterday got some very bad news from Denmark concerning a private problem.
The worst thing which can happen, when you are away from home a long time like I am now, is that things are nor ok in Base camp. Of course it would be possible for me to get home within half a day, but that would not have made any difference in this case.
It's amazing how may odd thoughts run through your head when riding all day long.

On with the show.

The start of the day offered a number of very qualified tops.16 %, 15 %, 9 % and 7 % were some of the thing on the days' menu. The two biggest hills even met me with short intervals. The day is bitterly cold, and the rain is at all times ready to intervene in the course of events. I did get a short heavy shower. The wind was very energetic, but mainly as a cross wind or a tail wind. All in all this a just another day at the office, a very ordinary working day. There are very few things here one can go into raptures over.

This is written in a weird and dark bar in a small village. The waitress is just as weird and furthermore equipped with a distinctive speech defect. She just turned away a Turk who wanted to pay for a beer with a DM 1000 note. I have ordered "Curry wurst" with "pommes".
This place is absolutely spooky.

The afternoon revealed flat roads, but even if I thus ride more kilometres, hills are more fun. But not 16 - 17 %. I made another phone call to Denmark and got the problems more under control. It helped a bit on my well-being

I had planned to ride a lot, hopefully more than 200 km. But as usual my inspiration and initiative evaporates, when I hit 160 km. I had bought a couple of beers for my evening. It's practically a small party, when I am placed in my sleeping bag and with my small radio opened to the world. Once I am placed in my sleeping bag, I can relax. 16 km before Nördlingen I spotted a place, where I had to camp. It was still early days, not even 6 o'clock p.m.

But then I had the opportunity to fiddle about with this and that. I cut my beard a little, smartened myself up, as much as I could and had a little to eat.

I had invested in a bag of baguettes, but had to threw it away when I realized, that it had to be baked in an oven. You may have noticed from my packing list, that I forgot to include an oven. I hate to throw money out of the window like that. That was the most stupid thing I have done since I near Silvretta bought a non-alcoholic beer. A beer with no alcohol is absolutely ok, but not when you expect the taste of something quite different.

I also spent some time on planning the route for tomorrow. I have all Germany covered with maps in the scale 1 : 200.000 and this combined with the fact that the signposting here is next to perfect makes it very easy to find the way. When you leave a town you meet a sign with the name of the next town and how many kilometres you have before you reach it.

I ride in Baden-Württemberg and the quality of the roads is decent. I have not met any cobble stones today. In the afternoon the weather got better. I even saw the sun over my camp. Here and there I can spot black clouds in the sky, ready to get to work. But now at 6.54 p.m. my camp is established, and I can carry myself to safety in 2 minutes. When I look at my maps, I am a bit shocked to see how far, far away I am from Denmark and to see how much Germany I still have left.

In the beginning of my expedition I had various "defects" but little by little they have all disappeared. When crossing Silvretta, my back informed me that this mountain was serious business, and today I had a little pain in my right groin. With hills up to 8 - 9 % over a few kilometres at the maximum I feel I can ride "forever" - if I feel like it. As I had expected the day was a working day without great revelations. And it was also a day with difficulties in keeping up the good spirits. I feel I am getting a bit homesick

For Pete's sake, it's almost 7 o'clock.
I think I will creep into my tent and open a beer ...

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