Since we had a zig zag route yesterday, arriving rather late, and the weather forecast announcing thunderstorms in the late afternoon, the decision was made to go straight and fast to Heppenheim. Although planned to leave around 9 a.m. departure was with 45 min. delay since one of the organisers overslept because of (unlike German) failing wake up services.
Group E cycled through many towns and this time less nature and arrived rather quickly in Darmstadt. Francoise’s mascotte, named Coquette travels with us on the trip. As she had been in many different places in the world before, she could not miss out the Helsinkistrasbourg trip. All the real “coureurs” in our group were impressed by the German “Radschnellverbindung” (highway for cyclists) which they tested with 40km/h.
A nice quick cultural event was improvised in Darmstadt where Patrick led us to a magnificent building from the Austrian architect Hundertwasser which we all appreciated very much.
Today we had “Live without Brian” , no picnic but quick lunches for everyone “à l’improviste”. Some used the occasion to dive into German “currywurst” culture. Françoise could finally taste the famous German “currywurst”, which she appreciated very much.
We said goodbye to Olivia who returned back to Strasbourg and welcomed Sandra and Matthew who joined the group anew. At still 25 km to go the
group suddenly split into two by accident but was soon reunited. Some drops announced already the upcoming rain. We cycled in full speed to our hotels where we happily arrived just before the rain started pouring down and we were all welcomed by Isa who had just arrived in Heppenheim to join the group for the last 3 days.
In the evening a prep. meeting for the tomorrow stage was organised in a nice place.