We had a really interesting day today, rather by accident. After an easy day yesterday, we woke up deciding we needed to have a big day. We started out really well, up and out early, and had 30 kms in by midday.

Then I got a puncture (again), and discovered a large hole in my tyre that a rock had torn through. Ouch. This combined with the bent dérailleur I’ve had for the last few days, meant it was time to find a bike shop.

Luckily there was a bike shop in the next town and a campsite not far away. Unfortunately the bike shop was shut for lunch, so we went and had a beer and some local specialities (cheese pasta and bacon dumplings -yummo) from the pub, where we met an odd couple of Italian blokes. They told us all about Northern Italy and gave us some new ideas on where to go.

We eventually made it back to the bike shop where a very lovely guy fixed my bent dérailleur hanger and got us back on the road. By now it was around 4pm and we were ready to find a camp. 6 kms later we arrived, only to find the campsite closed…..

The nearest other camp was 40km away, and out of reach by now. We found instead a youth hostel 20km away in Burghausen.

After getting slightly lost, we arrived high above Bergahousen around 7pm, and were greeted by a view out of a fairy tale, with an enormous hilltop fort all lit up surrounding a very medieval town. We hadn’t heard of the town before so it took us completely by surprise.

A quick ride down and we would soon be in a comfy bed! Ten minutes later we found the hostel. It was enormous, but there was absolutely no activity and the lights were out. The front door was open so I walked in, and wandered around the empty corridors, yelled out, buzzed the door, but found no one. Unfortunately the doors to the rooms were locked, otherwise I think we would have just settled in for the night.

We eventually found a (very expensive, for us) room, with no cooking facilities. So it was back to the hostel, were we cooked dinner on an outside table overlooking a darkened park, and had a rather nice bottle of wine to finish off the long day.

Although it could have been a really horrible day, for some reason we had really good time, and eventually went to bed very satisfied and happy (although we’re going to be living on bread and cheese for the next week).