Bad Ragaz to Begenz. 7th May 2023.

• Todays mileage: 52 miles
• Total mileage: 154 miles
• Disasters: One – red bungee failure lost us the race !

Woke to a dry morning but the forecast isn’t good so we were up by 7am. We met our Dutch friends at the communal table while we were having stale bread & cheese again for breakfast.

I don’t know how it happened but we seemed to end up in a race to see who could pack tents the quickest.

We took an early lead but then my toilet habits allowed the Dutch to draw level. (Sarah says I’m like a Hobbit – first breakfast, second breakfast… you get the idea)

We’d both got tents down and bikes nearly packed when Sarah “lost” a bungee ! With this the race was lost and the Dutch said their goodbyes. Close but no cigar…

On the road the cycling was perfect. Dedicated cycle track through stunning scenery. …and it was flat 😁

We made swift progress towards Lake Constance which was our goal for the day. We wanted to get there before the rains if possible.

We did get caught in showers strong enough for rain gear but not for long. It rained for our duration in Liechtenstein – country number 2.

By Sennwald we were in sunshine. We nipped over a bridge into Austria (country number 3) for a gourmet lunch of crisp and tomato sandwiches.

Fully fuelled we set off again for Lake Constance, stopping once for an ice cream at an open air craft fair 😋

We arrived at our chosen campsite to be politly told it was closed until the 12 May. This was a bit of a comedy moment because we looked at the site where there must have been over 100 caravans & motorhomes with families playing round them. They obviously didn’t want Brits after Brexit ☹️

Anyway we moved on to the next site who welcomed us. We got a lovely pitch with grass this time & set up our camp (after a cheeky beer in the site bar)

Having run out of crisps, cheese and tomatos we opted for food in the campsite bar. Now in Austria we wouldn’t have to sell a kidney to afford a meal.

The food was just snacks really & we ordered a cheese salad and a Margareta pizza. Nice food & beers arrived. Well they tasted nice to me but after 50 miles I’d have eaten a scabby dog !

After food the waitress brought us complementary spirits as a digestive. I can’t remember what it was called but the chef made it !

Now I know a little about distilling & this was a strong, clean spirit @ ~60% abv !

Then a second one appeared when we paid the bill 👍 Think I’ll sleep tonight…

We just got back to the tent before the forecasted heavy rain started. …and it’s heavy 💦💦💦 🤞 we’ll stay dry tonight…

..as a footnote some of the caravans in our site deserve a mention…