These days we have experienced rain, sun, cold, heat and storm.

We leave the campsite in the rain. Fortunately, our laundry is almost completely dry. What should have been a whole day of rain was only a few hours. The sun breaks through and it turns out to be a wonderful cycling day.

We stop at a bicycle repair shop. We have had the first climbs already and we notice that changing gear does not go completely smooth. It’s fixed and we can go up and down the hills again.

What I have not yet told you about is that Q’s sleeping pad is slowly deflating during the night. We tried to paste it but it didn’t fix the problem and is actually starting to get worse. Q has to get off his mat more and more often to blow it up again. The moment we decide that we cannot continue this way and have to buy a new mat, we are far from a city with an outdoor shop. We decide to take a train to Ulm. The bad nights take a toll on us.

When we arrive at 4 pm, a whole day has already passed. We quickly go to a store, buy a new mat and send the old one home. It’s already late, we’ve been trying to find a place to sleep through warmshowers all day, but because it’s a Friday evening everyone has plans or is not home. At the last moment when we think we have to cycle out of town and probably have to find a place to sleep in the dark, we get a golden tip. Near the centre of the city on the side of the Danube is a boathouse where they let people camp on their lawn. When we get there, no one is there. Nevertheless, we set up our tent. We have Wi-Fi, electricity and a tap for water. When the tent is up it is already dark, we get some food in the sports club next door and eat it quickly so we can go to bed because it is getting very cold.

Q slept great on his new sleeping mat! And Ulm turns out to be a beautiful city. In the morning we go for a coffee somewhere to make a new route in the warmth of a cafe. We decide to change the route a bit and cycle more south in Italy. We hope to escape the cold with this by moving more towards a maritime climate.

We find a route towards Venice called ‘via Claudia Augusta’. We draw a line from where we are now to the route we want to follow. Meanwhile, we are starting to get drowsy from the heat. We quickly leave on the bike and enjoy the fresh air from outside again.

That day is boring. A straight road along commercial buildings and farmland. Today we decide to ask people for the first time to camp in their garden. We just had to ask once because the people who we asked sad yes immediately. They didn’t speak English so we tried to make ourselves understandable in our best German.

We enjoy their beautiful garden and call our family at home. We start cooking when the sun has already set and we freeze while eating. Cold to the bone we enter the tent. This resulted in the worst night yet. We went to bed cold and went out still cold without sleeping a wink. This was a teaching moment for us!