Day 25 Switzerland 13/10/2010 Basel and a very nice apartment!

As previously suggested the hangovers we woke up with were good ones. Good job we were only moving across the city this morning!

After a few trips back to the room we eventually got all our gear downstairs and attached to the bikes. We then set off on the brief trip across the river to Howard and Fiona's apartment. Their directions had been good and we found it without any trouble. Howard came down to meet us and helped us move our gear, while the bikes got locked safely in the garage.

It was fantastic to have the use of the washing machine, when we figured out how it worked! Plus we got loads of research done on our coming route and managed to locate some camp-sites along the way. Just having a bit of space and time to regroup has helped enormously.

Jeff came over in the afternoon and was joined by his girlfriend Lea later that evening, when Fiona cooked us all a lovely meal. We had a fantastic evening and we can't thank our hosts enough for their hospitality. We hope to see you all again sometime.

PS we hope your exam went well Howard.

Day 24 Switzerland, 12/10/2010 Basel. All on foot!

Breakfast is included! Swiss hostels are very expensive, so its nice to get something for free. We filled ourselves up as much as we could and then headed out into the city to have a look around.

Starting from the hostel we walked up the hill, past the mysterious church that although closed in appearance always seemed to have organ music coming from it. Ghosts or a tape recorder, your guess is as good as ours.

Typical our first stop is covered in scaffolding! The Cathedral apparently has an interesting knight on horseback slaying a dragon statue. We could see the top half but as to the rest of him I wish I could tell. Mercifully you can still see enough of the building to have a look around. From the Cathedral we followed a walking tour, that Debbie had picked up from the hostel. Which led us through the medieval streets of Basel. Up and down quite a lot of steps and some steep hills. The city centre is very pretty, with an interesting mix of old and new. Ivy clad houses stand side by side with graffiti art covered walls.

Braving the Swiss prices we managed to get hold of the map books that would take us all the way to Budapest. We also managed to get some more fuel for the stove which was getting a bit in short supply.

The Welsh have arrived! Walking through the city, there seemed to be an over abundance of red clad people with welsh accents. We hadn't realised that Wales were playing Switzerland in the Euro qualifiers tonight in Basel. This would probably explain why our first choice hostels were all full when we were trying to book last week.

After spending quite a lot of the day walking round, we decided to ride one of the trams that travel round the city to get an overview of Basel. Thanks to the hostel we were given free passes to use the public transport during the length of our stay. The hostel wasn't on any of the tram routes though!

Having had a productive day we went back to the hostel to do some research on the route ahead. Checking the blog we saw a message from Debbie's old friend Jeff who as it turned out lived not far from Basel. A hasty phone call later and we arranged to meet that evening in an Irish pub. We ate a nice 4 course dinner in the hostel and then got ready to go out. Needless to say when we got to the pub it was heaving with Wales supporters. We managed to find Jeff and were later joined by his friend Howard and a little later Howard's wife Fiona.

As kick off neared, the pub cleared of the supporters and we had a great evening chatting and drinking too much beer. During the evening we got an offer to stay at Howard & Fiona's apartment tomorrow, which we duly accepted. Moving on will have to wait for another day. Which is just as well with the potential for a heavy hangover in the morning. By the way Wales lost so there was no singing in the valleys or hostel (thankfully) tonight.

Day 23 Germany/France/Switzerland, 11/10/2010 Breisach–Vogelgrun–Fessenheim–Kembs–Basel. 44.5miles/71.89km, ride time 4hr04minutes, averaging 10.9mph

For some reason this morning the sun just didn't want to rise. So we laid in a bit later than usual. The plan was to get everything sorted and give the tent some time to dry out as we have booked into a hostel for two nights in Basel.

With everything packed away we headed into Briesach from our camp-site to pick up some bread and a few supplies for the day ahead. We rather prematurely said goodbye to France, as it turns out that today’s route is on a better surface in France. We didn't fancy nearly 50kms of unsealed road in Germany.

We crossed over the Rhein and headed south through several small French villages. Oddly everything was closed, a good job we got supplies in Germany! The cycle routes mostly followed relatively quiet roads and we again made very good progress.

From Kembs onwards the route moved onto a hard packed gravel tow path along a canal. Although good for covering the distance, these routes become a little tiresome. They are almost dead straight and bypass all but the outskirts of the surrounding villages. We continued along this route straight into the outskirts of Basel, where we encountered our first border crossing. Well there were some kiosks and a nothing to declare lane, but no customs officers. Perhaps they were all at lunch!

After getting the hang of the different cycle signing in Switzerland, we made it into the city centre. All we then had to do was find the hostel. This turned out to be easy, although it did involve riding up a short but very steep hill. Not really what you want at the end of a cycling day, but we had been warned about the steep Basel streets.

The hostel is very smart and currently we are the only ones in a four bed mixed dorm. After getting settled in we went to have a stroll around the area and get some dinner. The city looks like it will make for an interesting place to explore tomorrow. We also have to buy some more maps for our route along the Danube.

A nice dinner of Asian food and it was back to the hostel to watch a film and plan for tomorrow. Night all.