Month: July 2010

Who would have thought it? Certainly not me, but here’s my thoughts on why after doing it constantly for 5 days:

Firstly, and most importantly, you’re heading away from the crowds. As a general rule, the further up you go, the less people there are and you’re heading into the unknown. Downstream the population is bigger.

Secondly, going uphill means you see more. It’s more tiring, so every village is taken slowly and is often an excuse to stop and rest, maybe in a biergarten. Downhill is faster and you’re less inclined to stop, the scenery whizzes by.

Finally, you get fit quick!

Last night we stayed in Gerolstein, home of Gerolsteiner Mineral Water. Here I am drinking it direct from the source. It’s exactly the same as what we’ve been buying for the last week –
fizzy and all! We had to queue behind locals filling up many, many bottles! The spring runs from April to November, after that it’s frozen for the winter.

Of course, any Tour de France fans will also know that Gerolsteiner sponsor a team. This is probably the closest that Guy and I will get to the tour this year!

Did I mention the soccer? Here’s a very small selection of football food that we are having today:

Limited edition M&Ms in Germany’s colours.
World Cup (weltmeistershaft) tomatoes.
An “Amerikaner” – which looked like it should have a filling but turned out to be just cakey.