Heading north

DAY 18
Huge day today. Short but steep climb out of Vizille and then fast to outskirts of Grenoble. Head up towards Chambery on good roads and stop for lunch in the searing heat at Pontcharra. Had our first run-in with a motorway just outside Chambery, pretty scary stuff, managed to walk backwards down the slip road and escape to safety. Got some tourist info in Chambery but took ages to find the way out of town, then found a nice cycle path just as we were getting knackered and cycled along the lake to Aix-Les-Bains. I decided today that Mei has overtaken me in the speed stakes, i think the mountains have made her stronger than i could have possibly imagined and she is now faster than me. Think i'll try shifting the weight of the panniers over to her and see how that goes.

105 kms, huge day today, this is a picture of Meinir trying to work out how far we have to go.

DAY 19


Over a few beers last night we have made a slight change to our plans. We need to be in Freiburg by the 27th to meet someone and we have come to the conclusion that we will not make it in time considering the Swiss hills that stand in the way of our athletic bodies. So, we ride to Annecy because it is a lovely place on a lovely lake and here we can sort out getting our bikes on a train and getting closer to our destination. Think we can do it, it also means we can chill by the lake for a few days which is nice.

There also happens to be a festival in full swing in town and lots of street performers in the evening. This is a bunch of jazz guys who were going off last night.

37 kms today, stupidly hot again, now for some rest time.