Finally, sustained sunshine. While it was cold outside, the sun was bright and this was more than enough to make us enthusiastic about the day ahead. One problem though. We managed to have an accident between ourselves the day before, leaving my bike with basically nothing (a reversible handle bar twist) but my dad's with a dodgy bent back wheel. Therefore his bike needed a visit to the repair shop. It took an hour to repair and when it finally came out the shop, I, noticing that my dad had newly pumped up wheels, decided to blow mine up slightly. 
And yes, the tubing broke (I maintain with my dad's defence that this was not my fault but the quality of the tubing and the very heavy weight I have been carrying on the back of my bike). But what luck, right in front of a bike shop. Another twenty minutes and twenty euros later, my bike came back with the newly pumped up tyre as I wanted it.At last we could enjoy the sunshine but we encountered a head wind which slowed us down significantly. Having left at noon, we had to stop soon for lunch in a meadow, leaving a long part of the journey left
for the afternoon. We continued into the strong wind until we reached the Rhone-Rhine canal, a perfect spot to cycle. We followed it, and continued to follow it, wondering if it ever ended, until bang. My dad's tyre popped open, but unfortunately this time it wasn't quite near a bike shop. He managed to fix it but his bike would need another visit to the doctor before tomorrow. So we rushed to make it to Strasbourg in time before the closure of the shops, and indeed we did.
I thought I would mention the coincidence of our attempted stay in Strasbourg an
d the NATO summit occuring tomorrow. With Barack Obama, Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel all present tomorrow, the city was being shut off by thousands of police. We were deemed not important enough to stay in the French city, hence why we had to cross the border into Kehl, just on the other side of the Rhine.
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