Finally a night without rain! The weather forecast seemed perfect for today’s 50km ride to St. Avold. Brandi had been demoted to the van and Dad was back alongside me. But before we could start, catastrophe struck!  Mum definitely/deliberately (haha) knocked my water bottle off the counter and onto the floor. The bottle was broken. We needed to make a detour to find a replacement water bottle.

Dad and I ventured back into the town centre and found a quirky little bike shop owned by an 88 year old lady.  Marianne Walas had worked in the store for 61 years. Her late husband hid in that shop from the Gestapo during WWII, and she was forced out of her native Poland by the Nazis to work in a labour camp. She sold me a stylish lime green water bottle, and I gave her my Bath to Rome leaflet. What a deal eh?  She was an enthusiastic and interesting lady, and I was pleased to have met her. Check out VIDEO 1 for our Metz escape.

Soon we were out on the open road, unfortunately this open road was very busy and fast. There was no cycle path, so we felt extra vulnerable.  This would turn out to be the case for nearly the entire ride. Check out VIDEO 2 for a snippet of the action!

The ride was interspersed with some cracking wide views of the countryside (see VIDEO 3). Lots of rolling hills and valleys meant that the road went up and down like a rollercoaster. These hills would prove to be our nemesis of the day. We tackled two long and tiring slopes that seemed to go on forever! Check out VIDEO 4 to hear Dad and I discussing our progress. Little did we know, bigger hills were still to come.

With all this climbing, we did get to enjoy some downhill rewards. Check out VIDEO 5 for some speedy action!

We eventually made it to the campsite after 3 hours of cycling. The distance ridden was 56km and we climbed 709m of hills! Dad and I were exhausted after completing the most difficult ride of the trip thus far. Looking forward to resting up, as we have another long journey tomorrow.