We have had probably the best rest day we could have ever hoped for . The weather has been amazing, the location has been great, the food has been good (and of the sit down at a table and eat with a knife and fork variety) and the beers have been plentiful. My abiding memory of this rest day though will be how kind and friendly everyone has been. Everyone and I do mean everyone says “morgen” to each other as we pass (usually to or from the toilet block…well it’s how you make friends in the continent apparently) all the people immediately around where we have set up tent make it their business to say hi and enquire about what we are up to, I still believe the campsite guy took pity and squeezed us in to the site when he probably shouldn’t have and the family immediately opposite us go way above and beyond by not only offering to charge up all our stuff (which was too kind not to accept) but also, on seeing us struggle to get our tent pegs into the ground their 3 year old son (I would guess….and by that I mean I am guessing he was 3 not that he was their son!)  marches over with a mallet to help us! As I say, really kind and really friendly.

The TMAAT rest day (on the rare occasion it is actually taken) is a pretty straightforward thing….wash everything, dry everything, charge everything and eat everything….and today is no exception. All boxes ticked we spend the rest of the day on the beach swimming and eating and yes alright, occasionally we had a beer or three.

We did take a short walk into town but having decided there was not much to see we walked straight back passing a restaurant on the way that we tagged for dinner later on. We actually had tried to have lunch there but were rather abruptly told the kitchen was closed (at 1330 btw!) but at the time that felt like a challenge rather than a red flag. We dutifully trundled back around 1930 and when we asked the waitress for a table she actually huffed and harrumphed as soon as she realised we were English and couldn’t speak German and she just turned her back on us walked off and abandoned us. Eventually someone did come out to seat us but overall it’s probably the rudest service I have ever had. The food thankfully was really pretty decent though.

When we got to back to tent the mozzies had invaded the whole campsite making life pretty miserable. Once I had been bitten for the eleventy billionth time I decided it was time for bed (Marc said I was grumpy I like to think of it as decisive and purposeful). Unfortunately at least one of the sneaky little BB skews made it into the tent and so the misery continued all night…..not a great deal of sleep was had by anything living in the tent that night.

When morning mercifully arrives it does feel like a shame that we have to get on with this whole cycle challengy thingy. It’s been a welcome break and we know that the Alps lie imminently ahead of us now and that at least 2 of the 5 days before we are due to arrive in Venice will be completely insane and quite possibly not doable.

Nonetheless around 8am, fully recharged (that’s us and our phones) and a good deal less stinky and more bitten than when we arrived we head off into the Alps. Whilst not to be sniffed at (66 miles and 2500 feet of climbing) this is effectively a “service day” that gets us to our “Alps base camp”. Doing it this way means, we hope, that we stand a better chance of getting up and over the alps without actually destroying ourselves. It will still leave us two massive, humungous, insane days but we are as confident as we can be that it is doable.

As we finally say goodbye to Bodensee the scenery starts to get more and more dramatic.

We also manage to cycle through four countries in one day…Germany, Austria, Lichtenstein and Switzerland and pick up our first puncture of the whole trip which is quickly fixed and we are on our way.

By the time we arrive at our campsite for the night in Landquart it’s a little after 4pm ( I know!!! I told you it was a service day) and it’s also started to rain for the first time on the entire trip …just mizzling but enough for us to put coats on.

We set up camp (which is good) and lose the bottle opener (which is much less good!). After ten minutes of much panicky searching we realise that the beers we have are twist tops so disaster is averted….for now.

Tomorrow is we know absolutely massive so tonight is all about just getting ourselves fed and watered and getting a good nights sleep.