A dry day!

Bonjour

Today is our first dry day in a week!! So good! I have sent Jase out on a mega ride - told him just to keep going and make full use of the good weather! Great coaching advice from me. I was incredibly frustrated this morning as I really wanted to ride my bike more than ever. So I went to the pool and swam 5km (200 lengths of boredom!) to curb my frustration! I am so slow that it took me a full 2hrs and that was without stopping! There was a swim squad there today, so I was by no means the fastest in the pool this time! I think it worked though - I do feel a bit better. After my swim I walked into the market for a coffee before returning to my favoured car park building. I am too scared to park anywhere else now incase another disaster occurs - I now know the ropes at this one!

Yesterday the weather was bad again - and cold (about 10-12 degrees). My 'athlete' was less than enthusiastic about getting wet and cold again, so we negotiated a rest day, and drove up to a town in the north Black Forest called Baden-Baden (German translation = bath-bath). It is a thermal town kind of like Hanmer but a bit bigger. We paid our 14 euro each (for 2hrs - more dosh if staying longer!) and went to the hot pools. The pools are supposed to bring "wellness"so we thought we may as well give it a crack! It was an awesome facility, although Jase was somewhat out of place in his long board shorts! The order of the day for German men is speedos or extra tight hot pants! Jase Hopper - you would fit right in!! I also notice that German men don't appear to enjoy deodorant - not good.

After our swim we wandered around the town - cool boutique stores and lots of gluten free food in the "Reformhaus" (hippy shops over here). I managed to restore my supply of gluten free baguettes again.

Well not much more to report from here - still haven't managed to upload the photos - they are not great anyway as the weather is shizen!

J

PS: CW you would love it here... it seems pigs are as well thought of as cats and dogs, and seem to grace the cover of magazines, birthday cards etc! We had spag bol for tea the other night and it seems it is impossible to buy beef mince - we had shweineflesh mince!! Not ideal and def not again!!

PSS: Jase just back from mega 7hr ride - said there was 2 feet of snow on either side of the road that was pushed up to head height where the road had been cleared! He said it was pretty cold and a bit icey on the down hill!