We both slept well. It is mildly awkward to stay in an Airbnb “room” with or without the host present. Our first Airbnb, the one we stayed in after we landed in Geneva, was just a room, but it felt a little more like it was set up for multiple guests in that mode – like a youth hostel for old folks. The second and third times we rented “rooms” were more like a couple or family renting out a single room, and they just had a different vibe. While both worked out fine, with the hosts being out of town and leaving each place to ourselves, if I could time travel back to my planning, I would have worked harder to find different accommodations for those nights.
We ate breakfast and left our Airbnb by 9. There wasn’t anything to keep us there. Today was our shortest ride, but it did involve some hills, and much more riding in traffic. We were grateful not to be in the mud though. Again, if I could time travel and change the route, maybe we wouldn’t have finished our ride in Switzerland. The trails haven’t been as good, we are on roads quite often, and it costs far more than France.
The weather was beautiful and clear today, with not a drop of rain! It was rather chilly, however, beginning the day only in the 40s and not really getting above 60 at all. It got pretty windy too. But we loved having no rain.
We arrived at our destination around 1:30 but couldn’t check in until 3, so we did some shopping for today’s and tomorrow’s meals, and had a bakery snack in a park, where we met a fellow member of our church who is from Ukraine. He was really interested in our bike, so it was fun to chat for a bit.
We have only one ride day left. In Iceland we rode our last three “rides” all in one day, getting to our final destination 2 days early. It was insane but it worked. Perhaps without our advanced reservations we would have done the same here – but it has been far more relaxing to arrive to our accommodations early, having time to clean up and eat and get a full night’s rest.
We are grateful that everything has worked out on our trip and that we have been safe. We’ve talked a bit about next year, which may be quite different as we have a few normal vacations planned which will use up most of my vacation days from work.
