Waking up early is just the way I roll out here. But I gave everyone time to wake up slowly until about 7 when I started suggesting coffee to Crys. I went and knocked on the kids door (no double rooms in Europe - only the occasional family room which wasn't available which means two hotel rooms - ouch) and they were already up and packing. By 8ish we were heading to coffee and croissants. I took a closer look at Andrews spokes and the spoke itself was actually fine, but three of the nipples were broken off. Well, not much to do about that now. I pulled the spokes off the wheel and packed them away for safekeeping.
As we were riding to coffee another sudden bike problem! My chain got sucked into my wheel! The derailleur high limit appeared to oddly be misadjusted. It must have gotten bent at some point the previous evening. Sigh.
The coffee was excellent and the pastries delicious. The common thing seems to be to get pastries from the bakery and bring them with you to the coffee shop as they often don't have any food.
A little luck and we found a bike path that brought us the 6 km back to the route that avoided the busy road we arrived on the previous day. And then we pedalled. It was a glorious smooth trail dedicated to bikes and by noon we were done with our 50 km and sitting at a restaurant for lunch - escargot of course!
For our lodging we found these amazing house boats for rent! Luckily they allowed us in early. Even luckier, when I mentioned my wheel whoas she took me back into her junk area and after some rummaging and a few false starts I had the nipples needed to repair Andrews front wheel! Thank you! She was so kind to help me!
I spent a few hours repairing and truing Andrews front wheel and I got it back to tip top shape I believe! My rear derailleur adjustment was pretty straight forward. Unfortunately I also appear to have broken a spoke when the chain came off. But I was able to true it up pretty well and one broken spoke can wait until we get to a convenient bike shop. Hoping it holds until then!
A dinner by the river and then off to our floating abode that we take a rowboat to!
Our home for the evening.
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