We were keen to get the bikes out to check and test before starting our cycle tour. I had a broken night sleep again with my body clock still out of wack. My back ultimately insisted I get out of bed and moving.

With Ben and Sharon still asleep, we snuck out and rolled down the hill into Stein. We thought we would just head to the Rhine River path, cross over to Bad Sackingen in Germany searching for a bakery to purchase items for our latter brunch.

We rolled out of Stein along a lovely bike path and arrived in Sisseln with a lovely smiley welcome.

We turned left and headed down on a dirt track to the Rhine River and admired the view.

We then followed this nicely formed path but were quickly turned back by a no bike sign. Then took the only other obvious option.

We pushed our bikes up a grassy hill and found another gravel path and headed back out onto the bike path, heading to Stein.

We rode back into Germany and nothing was open. You can see from our map we wandered around a fair bit.

Riding back into Switzerland across the covered wooden bridge. The bridge is 203.7 metres in length and is the longest roofed wooden bridge in Europe. It was built in 1272 and has been destroyed several times. The current bridge was completed in 1700.

Originally a road bridge, it is now only open for pedestrians since 1979

Back at Ben and Sharon’s place we had a wonderful brunch with local. This was about half of what was on offer. We will need to ride 3000 km now!

We needed to work off some calories so we headed off for an afternoon walk in the local forest.

The first km was quite steep as you can see from the ascent map. Never shows in photos.

It was a beautiful forest, recently greened up with spring.

At the top of the climb, we walked around the edge of a farm with some curious cows.

The next paddock we managed to upset a bull who clearly indicated his discomfort with our presence, roaring and hoof scraping the ground. The single strand of electric tape seemed inadequate so we took the hint and moved on.

The upset bull.

Lovely farmland including flowering rapeseed (Canola).

Well signposted tracks clearly indicating direction and distance at Chatzeflue (top of this section of climb).

From Chatzeflue looking down the valley on the southern side towards the pretty village of Obermumpf.

More pretty park like farmland.

At Mumpferflue, the ever reluctant Ben complying with the photographers request despite his wife’s pleading.

We then descended on the northern side of the hill, with views back towards Germany

Looking westerly along the Rhine, Switzerland to the left, Germany to the right.

The very pretty forest carpeted with a white flower that is used for culinary purposes. It has a sweet onion smell.

Decent little walk. Our second for the day. Total walking today is 10 km, and total pottering ride, 17 km.

All set to finalise our bag packing for the morning. We plan to be on the road by 8 am at the latest. We just need Ben and Sharon to be up so we can say farewell for a few weeks.

So stay tuned, as our odyssey is imminent.

Smile on 😊