Wednesday 25 December 2013

Day 29 - Getting into Frankfurt

Woke up just before 6am needing a dump. I had a scour around and there wasn't a toilet in sight, so I had to resort to squatting by a bush and wiping with leaves. Thankfully there wasn't anyone around to witness this. I opted for the gentle approach when waking up the others as knew they wouldn't want to drag themselves out of their sleeping bags at this hour after yesterday's late finish. This involved packing up quietly whilst playing 'Children' by Robert Miles on the ipod, which went down well. Tom reluctantly got up within about 10 minutes, whilst Chris needed a bit more snooze time. Me and Tom went to find food in the town and Chris said he'd catch up with us. We came across a bakery and I remember sitting in there consuming a massive amount of food whilst Tom had a more sensible breakfast. Chris pulled up about 20 minutes later and joined us. We must have stayed another 30 minutes before finally leaving. We then headed to the nearby supermarket to get some supplies and use their toilet. half an hour later we finally properly got going. I was feeling particularly tired so got out the Airwaves gum and music to help give me a boost. The morning dragged and it was definitely a case of getting the miles over with rather than enjoying the scenery. We reached a large town by about midday, by which point we were very hungry, so cycled through the town looking out for a buffet. It wasn't looking hopeful and I was starting to get impatient with the temptation to go to the nearest shop for food increasing. Then just as we got to the end of town we saw one :) . We went inside and there was a huge spread of delicious looking food to choose from. The excitement levels rose as we were shown to our table, and instantly got stuck in. We stayed there for about 2 hours cramming down as much of the delightful food as possible. Towards the end I went into the toilet and heard snoring coming from one of the cubicles - this was blatantly Chris. I came out and told Tom - he got out the itouch and went in to film this. Unfortunately Chris had woken up by this time and they came back to the table together. We left feeling extremely bloated and I remember feeling horrendous. About 5 miles down the road I realized that I'd left my earphones at the buffet - it was too far to justify going back. Besides I had a spare pair so not such a big deal. As we got within close proximity to Frankfurt there were Ironman signs on some of the roads - Ironman Frankfurt was in 10 days time and we were cycling on some of the roads they were using for the bike course. Pretty cool for me as I was doing Ironman Wales soon after flying home from Ghana. There was a brief downpour just before getting into the city - we sheltered in a petrol station and had a snack whilst waiting for it to pass. We were all very excited at the prospect of a rest day in Frankfurt - especially as we planned to meet up with Rich Rollison when we got there (a friend from home who lived in Germany), and we were on a high for these last few miles. We managed to navigate our way to the train station (where we met Michelle) very easily, before the short walk to the hostel. After checking in and going up to our room I had my first shower in 5 days - so good! It wasn't long before Rich arrived, bringing with him a crate of beer :) . We drove around for a bit in Rich's car looking for a car park - at this point it became clear that we were staying in the city's Red Light District. After making our way back to the room we cracked open the beers. It was really refreshing to talk to Rich - the fact that it was the first familiar face we'd seen since leaving England several weeks ago made it special. I had seen posters for a 90's dance music event that was happening in Frankfurt tonight and I was keen. However after two or three beers and sitting in the hostel room for some length of time the tiredness set in and going out became too ambitious. I remember Tom ending up smashed (always funny when drunk) and slowly climbing the ladder to his bunk bed (above me) before unwittingly knocking my ipad he'd borrowed from his bunk onto the floor - there was a loud thud but he didn't notice. Luckily it must have landed dead flat as it wasn't damaged. I finally went to sleep at about 1.30am

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