Sunday 8-12 to Offen

Our plan for the day was a 4 hour ride to the town of Olfen. For the first time ever, we booked an Air B&B: right place, right price.

Our chief initial concern was we might be too early for a 2 p.m. check-in time, but after a short distance we got our first flat tire: one of the trailer tires was so worn it was punctured by some small thing we never did find. So I replaced both trailer tires with the new ones we've been carrying. Mounting the 12" tires, it is difficult because to stretch the little things to get them onto the rims. I mounted the first one OK, but managed to put a hole in the tube of the second one, and had to start over. The whole process took nearly an hour, so we weren't so worried about being too early.

We had a good lunch stop at a big and popular biergarten, but as we continued it became obvious I'd underestimated the day's distance. Following the EuroVelo route there is no way to accurately measure the distance prospectively, and the designers of the route were more concerned about keeping us away from busy roads- any roads, actually- than about getting us to point B. And at one point we had to disassemble our rig andd haul it up a short but steep dirt slope to get back on the right route. After five hours we still had a good way to go. Then with only 8 km to go we ran into a bridge out. On the bike we can get around a lot of construction blockages, but there was no arguing with this one. As we were scratching our heads for a workaround, we met up with a scruffy man on foot who led us back to a signboard with a local map. His English was nil but he made a great effort to show us what roads to take to another bridge. After it finally dawned on me what he was suggesting, we thanked him and went on our way.

An hour later we were finally at our destination, but the day's challenges weren't over. It seems I'd booked the Air B&B room for next Sunday. But the hosts took pity on us and let us stay. A very nice apartment, actually. And a lot better than our fallback, which was none. Don't know where we'd have laid our heads. We always joke about sleeping under a bridge, but never have come so close.

We rode the bike a short distance into the center of town and were enjoying a pizza when who should come by but the man who helped us back at the bridge. We bought him a drink and a pizza. Turns out he is homeless, but my German wasn't good enough to understand much more than that. Didn't even find out how he got to Olfen himself. It was good to be able to repay him something for his kindness.

Not our favorite day. We don't really have a destination now. We're just heading NE until after Wednesday. Wherever we are, we'll take a train from there. We're determined to make the last few days on the road easy ones.