Day 5

Start:     Engen (Germany) 

Finish:    Vaduz (Lichtenstein)

Distance:   100 miles cycled (484 miles total)

Weather:   Persistent showers until late afternoon

After spending the previous evening studying the maps it was established that the team would need to be driven about an hour from the ‘Guesthof Adler’ if they were going to manage Lichtenstein as well as Austria in the same day.   Everyone had been looking forward to starting from the hotel (minimising the amount of kit that needed to be sorted out), so the news of a later start time was not a great moral boost (especially as it might have meant a lie-in for me!).

Having arrived at the hotel in the dark and therefore not getting a view of the surroundings, at first light as people headed for breakfast it was clear that we had definitely gone from (“bloody”) hilly to mountainous as we approached Germany’s southern border.




A wet start in Engen

 The drive to the start point was through constant rain that got bleaker as we got closer, and by the time the lads were ready to go it was persistant drizzle.

Fully kitted out again they started out from Engen and began winding their way to the Swiss border, then sweeping along lake Bodensee south of Konstanz. 

The rain was easing by lunchtime but by then everyone was cold and wet anyway, and some food did little to cheer anyone up.

The rain had also made the roads slick again, and railway crossings became particularly dangerous, with Danny going down a few miles after the checkpoint, and then half a mile later Dan, Dan and Phil all went down on another crossing.  With the rain starting to come down again and a few more bruises and scrapes to deal with the going got a bit slower and the team began having time concerns.



Swiss-Austrian Border

 By 17h00 the team were crossing the Rhine into Austria, and after a quick photo pause it was time to get moving again if they were to reach Liechtenstein on the same day.

In Austria the rain stopped and the guys were able to start making some good progress again. By now the really big mountains were starting to loom on the horizon, and although there were only some moderate climbs today, it was clear that tomorrow would be a real Alpine test.



Austrian-Liechtenstein Border

 Liechtenstein was reached at 18h00, and after the border guards had finished checking my passport I was able to take a quick photo and let them get underway again in order to rack up the precious miles.

The cloud and surrounding mountains meant it got dark earlier than previous evenings, but by 19h30 the team had cycled 100 miles and were a stones throw from the border crossing back into Switzerland.

Jumping in the van we made the short trip across to the hotel which will be base camp for two nights, ready to head down to Italy tomorrow morning with only a few Alps in the way!