Kreuzlingen

It was certainly a shocking and unexpected sight. As David made his appearance at the breakfast table, we could not help but notice that his arms and shirt were covered in blood. It is hard to know how to react in such circumstances. Do you just ignore the elephant in the room, or do you try to make light of the situation?

I know that we were staying in a 700 year old establishment, and also that such establishments would undoubtedly harbour many dark secrets, but I had no idea that such things could influence the actions of someone in the enlightened 21st Century.

Of added concern was the fact that Carol was yet to make her appearance. If our police inspector couple were still with us, I am sure that they would have been asking penetrating questions. We all know that marital relations can become strained on these protracted holidays, but none of our previous 49 trips had ever terminated with a murder.

David finally noticed the strange looks all directed in his direction, and then explained that somehow in the middle of the night, he had ripped his arm open on his goose feather pillow. The resulting hemorrhage had left the sheets and pillows covered in blood. Now I had heard some far fetched stories in my time, and also met some mighty thin skinned Collingwood supporters, but this story really pushed the boundaries of credulity to the maximum.

When Carol finally made her entrance, we were all a little relieved to see that she was still alive. Maybe there was some truth to David's story after all. In any case, David spent the rest of breakfast time, staring into space with a blank look of terror on his face. Apparently it was the time of the Grand Final in Melbourne, and he had somehow tuned his hearing aid into the Internet in order to follow the proceedings.

This was all very well, but every time someone tried to talk to him, he replied with a huge shout. It was obvious that he had no idea of how loud he was talking. At one stage, the owner of the hotel down the street, came into the room to ask if we could keep the shouting down a little as his guests were getting rather unnerved at the noise.

David did not finally settle until he announced that the final bell had sounded and that Collingwood had won by four points. I guess that sent thousands of bogan supporters into a toothless delirium. It was only later that I read that they only won because of an umpiring howler in the final 2 minutes of the game.

We finally started riding on the last leg of our Lake Constance circuit at the later than usual time of 9.30am. It was a little sad that we would soon be parting company with these bikes that had served us so well. At least the weather was still perfect, although the sky was a little cloudier than the previous few days.

The route itself held no great challenges, but the scenery was quite superb. At about the half way point, several of the women started demanding a toilet stop, after all they had ridden for over 15 km without a break. I tried to communicate this request to Gordon, but somehow the peloton split into two (and remained that way for the rest of the ride).

The rear half of the group stopped at a lakeside cafe for coffee, cake and toilets, while the front half disappeared into the distance.

All too soon we were rolling back into the familiar territory of Konstanz. We crossed the Swiss/German border without even noticing it, parked the bikes for the final time and went in search of lunch.

Tomorrow, we have a very early start as we travel to Dijon. We will finally be leaving Germany and entering France - our home for the remainder of the trip.Read more