We passed 1000 miles yesterday and those crazy royals stole all the limelight. The germans love the royal wedding, half of them we meet cant believe that we didnt fly home for it. Anyway thanks to william and katie for the free day off, we celebrated your wedding by doing some more cycling.

We stayed in Ulm over Easter, the city where Albert Einstein was born, they´ve commemorated this awesome fact by opening a bread museum. We been following the Danube east all week and have again suffered from campsite non-existence, we were forced to sleep in a couple of pub bier gartens during the week, which to be honest wasnt the end of the world. On our ride to Passau we passed 1000 miles and celebrated with a spot of lunch.

We cross the border into Austria tomorrow. Germany has been good to us, bike paths everywhere, great coffee and cake shops and people more impressed that we had 3 months off work than the fact we were cycling to Istanbul. Only improvements I would make if I was granted an audience with Mrs Merkel would be to recommend that you dont need to ring the town hall bell every 15 minutes through the night and to sell something other than pig to eat.

auf wiedersehen,
Ed

Nehmt rucksicht

Not sure what this sign means. Tried to hi- five all men we saw wearing lederhosen but they weren't having any of it.

Ed

Location:Ulm, Deutschland

Time for some stats

We've made it to germany and the source of the Danube so it's time for some stats. In 17 days we have cycled 656.8 miles, spent 84 hours and 11 minutes cycling and put the tent up 13 times. Top speed so far clocked has been 32 mph which was coming down a hill into saverne, personal worst speed while attempting to move was an impressive 3.2 mph clocked today while climbing up into the black forest. Make of car we've been most overtaken by is Citroën (imagine this is soon to be Audi). Country most intolerant of cyclist is England (in France drivers would rather drive into each other than cyclists and in Germany you are mainly on your own specific cycle path where cars are banned).

Passing into Germany also means that I have taken over as lead interpreter. In my new role I have decided to teach Lizzie some key words, today's were hallenbad (open air swimming pool), meerschweinschen (guinea pig or hamster not sure which) and schwarzwelderkirschtorte (black forest gâteau) - none have so far proved useful.

We head off down the Danube tomorrow to look at castles and to put the tent up a few more times.

Tschuss,
Ed

Location:Donaueshingen, Deutschland

French cuisine

Cycling loads means you can eat loads. Yeterday I ate a honey sandwich, a banana and a massive cup of tea for my first breakfast. My second breakfast was a pain au raisin that was bigger than my face ( and my face is pretty big). Lunch was two vaiche qui rit sandwiches, two cereal bars, a load of tuc biscuits, a load of speculoos biscuits and a snickers washed down with some mixed nuts. My pre dinner snack was a quiche, a slice of rhubarb tart and two coffees. Dinner was frankfurter ratatouille served on a heap of Cous cous.

Nyum nyum,

Ed

Location:Metz

Bonjour mon petit filous

We've made it to verdun through sun, rain, hail, wind and lots of scary dogs. Most campsites are still closed because it is winter on French time. So we're having to ride miles to find places that will have us (82 miles today). Ailments so far include sun burn, back ache, permanently frozen hands and feet, bruised legs and we stink. Highlights so far are cycling on to the ferry first, the quiche in Lorraine, being overtaken by a huge cycle race just outside cambrai and getting loads of respect from other cyclists.

Day 2

Day 2 and we've already covered 4% of the miles, radical. Yesterday was a microcosm of the whole trip:
• I nearly got run over by a bus and then a taxi
• we both got chased by dogs
• I broke my saddle
• Lizzie got shat on by a bird
• we both got sunburnt



We've been here about an hour and already the campsite is as messy as our flat.

Location:Nr Dover