clairedavieswriter

And it’s a wrap on our end-to-end of Germany. Team Bernard have pedalled 1,249.8k and climbed 6,785m from the chilly windswept dykes of Schleswig Holstein to the boiling foothills of the Bavarian Alps.

This was literally the end of the road: the closest we could get to the border on two wheels:

When we set off just before 6am it was a cool 16 degrees, and the sun was barely peeping over the mountain tops:

Which looked more intimidating by the second – I wasn’t fooled by the first couple of kilometres on the valley floor:

But Guillaume quickly pointed out the obvious, just in case:

And for good measure, the local signage helpfully pointed out that we were in the high alps:

The first half of the climb was quite easy:

I felt like I was the only human out there: my arrival caused some consternation among the locals:

The last bit of the climb wasn’t too bad either:

But I’ll be honest, the least said about the middle bit the better. There were times when I wondered why on earth I was doing it, and whether I should just turn around, not least because I was worried about the descent – this wasn’t even the steepest bit:

Somehow, bloody-mindedness saw me through, and after an hour and a half of punishment, the end was virtually in sight – the white sign in the middle is pointing to ‘Germany’s most southerly point’:

Aside from completing the whole end-to-end challenge, the main highlight today was the scenery, because who doesn’t love a high alpine meadow with a soundtrack of bongling cow bells?

Or a burbling mountain stream?

The dirty stuff on the sides on this one was actually a couple of feet of snow:

Though I admit I appreciated the views more on the way down, when I wasn’t fighting for breath

But much more importantly, did we make it back for breakfast, I hear you ask. Reader, we did, with time to spare for a shower:

And the hotel clearly had faith in me, because they’d got the bubbly ready:

I’ll put a few general thoughts together for a final blog on the train home tomorrow, so stick around for those if you want to, but otherwise, thanks for following, and I hope you’ll come back for my next challenge: Austria, in August. Auf wiedersehen!