But the overall theme (if there is one) was waterways. Cycled the Rhine and Danube as well as Belgium, Dutch and English Canals. With Debbie and Aaron we toured the Loire Valley by car – can’t really say I cycled it as 10k in Samour doesn’t count.

Met some interesting and great people along the way, too many to mention. Only used my “cold weather” gear 3 times as the temperature was consistently hitting 30C + all the time.

In the spirit of today’s trend of having the “Ten Best of…..” My top 10, in no particular order are:

• The cycle paths of Belgium, Holland, Austria, France. (Worst by a long shot were England and Hungry)
• Madeira – very pleasant surprise
• Best Bridge – the wooden bike/Foot bridge near Kelheim
• Best Campsite. – Vilshofen an der Donau, totally geared for cyclists
• Bad Days – None, well there were some not so good days but then without them the good days would be ordinary
• Accident free days – all except one – when the bike and I parted company on a bridge
• Punctures or mechanical failures – none
• Best piece of gear – My ultra light weight camp chair with the Brooks Saddle coming in a close second
• Best website/app – hands down Komoot.com in combo with the Garmin Edge.
• The people you meet along the way.

For the last 5 days the biggest hill I’d face was in Ghent and that was not exactly a hill, more a mound. England, or at least the way from Dover to Canterbury used hills with a vengence, I was either sweating up a hill or braking down one, never just cycling on the level.

Since this was the penultimate day of cycling, I decided my bike really needed a clean as, over the weeks, dirt, mud and dust had become attached to the bike. Voila – a clean bike. I think the guy meticulously cleaning his car in the next car wash bay was somewhat perplexed PMB but now I have a shiny bike again,

To start the ride was lovely, lots of other cyclists about and it seemed as if everyone was on holiday – unfortunately this turned out to be the case when I discovered all Supermarkets were closed and all the food I had was. – not much.

Any way, the land was flat and no hills visible, that is until the mist started lifting and then the hills started appearing. Even here there were castles. There had been some very busy people back in the day.

So as I continued, the hills started closing in a wee bit but I was able to block out the true nature of what I faced.

There are no pictures of the climb, I just kept telling myself, that it would be over at some point. When the gradient turned to 15 per cent, my bike finally became a push bike.

Luckily on the climb, thunderstorms started rolling in, when gave me the pretext to stop and shelter every so often but once I summited it was game on. The result was dead heat as I reached Donnaueschingen.

Now I knew that the Start of the Danube wasn’t a cute babbling spring in a grotto, but rather where two other streams joined together but,it could have had a bit more grandeur

Particularly as I’d cycled over 1000ks to get there.

I was feeling somewhat tired as the last few days had taken their toll and decided on a short day so I could spend the afternoon in Strasbourg. But I woke to the sound of rain and the forecast was for rain on and off all day. It’s one of the joys of cycling. So I got all the wet weather gear out and went out. Being a Sunday nothing was open so I couldn’t even find a coffee let alone breakfast. This will strike two. Finally as I was crossing over a bridge, my front wheel got caught in a rut and yes the bike and I parted company. This was Strike three.

However, apart from my ego, nothing much was damaged and the weather gods decided enough for the day and stopped the rain. The rest of the ride to Strasbourg was really rather pleasant thru a catherdral of trees.

Now Strasbourg was a very welcome surprise. Quite worth the visit.

Tomorrow I leave the Rhine and head towards the Danube – over a few steep looking hills….

So tomorrow I shall just rest the legs a bit and only go as far as Strasburg.

It is a bit funny but being in France is almost comforting. It seemed that no one in Germany spoke any English and I spoke even less German so conversation was difficult even with Google Translate. I have had conversations in which I hadn’t the slightest idea of what was said. But now I can again converse and understand signs, people and even stuff in Supermarkets!