Bikepacking - Rest day in Neufchateau

Day #

08

State of Legs

:-)

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	Distance (miles)	Distance (km)	Ascent (feet)	Ascent (metres)	Punctures
Today	0 miles	km	0 feet	metres	0
Trip Totals	440 miles	km	18098 feet	metres	0

The chief activity for today is inactivity! Yes, there's to be no cycling today. Weary legs must be rested and calorie deficits must be addressed!

Not that there's nothing to do. In fact I have a couple of important "travel admin" tasks to get done. 

The first is to clean the bike, lubricate if necessary and check for problems. I've washed the bike on the cobbled path outside the apartment, which was a little tricky given the steep slope! I've also had a go at degreasing the chain with a mixture of water and the juice of a lemon to help cut through the oil (no, I didn't bring the various sprays I have at home for this purpose!). I rinsed the chain thoroughly with clean water after this of course. You wouldn't want to leave your chain soaked with a mild acid, would you!? After leaving the chain to dry, I then applied a little chain lube which I have in my toolkit. Finally, I scrutinised the rims and spokes of each wheel. They had quite a hammering on some of the off-road sections so I wanted to be sure I hadn't done any damage. Before coming on the trip during a service, a number of cracks were found in my rear wheel and the wheel replaced, so it does happen. Anyway, the bike, AKA The Mule seems good to go, I'm happy to report.

The Mule - Cleaner than it was 30 minutes earlier!

I've also spent time trying to book places to stay in Switzerland. This is proving harder than expected. For my first night, I secured a space at a campsite a little further along my route than I would have liked but there's actually very little choice in campsites it turns out and you have to go to where they are. After that, the plan is to get to the eastern end of Lake Lucerne, ideally somewhere like Altdorf or the Lake Lucerne port town of Flüelen and have two full days of rest in preparation for The Big Climb up to Andermatt and the St Gotthard Pass. My first choice campsite was fully booked. My second choice was ten miles away from where I ideally want to be but that too is fully booked. The hunt for somewhere to stay east of Lake Lucerne continues.

I have ascertained that there's a space for me at a camp site high up in the mountains at Andermatt though so that's good news!

Apart from sorting out The Mule and some Swiss accommodation, all I have to do today is to eat and rest. I have lots of TV shows and films on an SD card but I'm really enjoying my book (Suttree by Cormac McCarthy) so I think I'll just immerse myself in the story for most of the day. And maybe have a nap :-)

As for food, I already had 4 scrambled eggs with cheese and toasted bread for breakfast and am about to have a large omelette with cheese and tuna. I'm trying to hit both calories and protein as you can see! And there will be more pasta tonight.

Cheese. I reported yesterday that I had played Blindfold French Cheese Roulette and bought three cheeses I'd never heard of. Here they are:

Fromage

Working from the right in the image, Saint Paulin is quite soft and had a mild but very pleasant taste. It is no more. I tried a bit yesterday in determining which might be best to add to my pasta and whilst this is not the one I cooked the pasta with (its flavour seemed too mild), I came back to it this morning and had some of it mixed in with scrambled eggs and the rest I just ate! Hey, I'm hungry!

In the middle we have Coeur de Savoie (Heart of Savoy). It's quite a hard cheese and had a distinctive flavour which reminded me a bit of Swiss Gruyere (though it's years since I had Gruyere so I may be imagining that). Either way, I liked it and ended up using it in last night's high calorie pasta dish.

Finally we have Le Saint Mont des Alpes (The Holy Mount of the Alps).  I haven't sampled this one yet. Some of it is likely to end up in the omelette I'm about to make and perhaps  in a similar pasta dish tonight. Then there's breakfast of course. So rest assured, there will be none of this cheese left before I go!

And that about sums up today!