Hello all. Today we awoke around 6:30 to rain. Since we were in no rush to leave Basel though we decided to just find a coffee shop with some cover and wait out the storm, which according to the radar and forecast would end at 10:30. We rode into town to try and find a small local shop, only to find that everything was closed... Aside from one little cafe. This cafe was great we were able to get filter coffee, bagels, and donuts. The name of the coffee shop was really cool it was called Starbucks.
So as I mentioned we sat at Starbucks and waited for the rain to stop which it did at about 10:30 as forecasted. So we loaded up the bikes and went to the store to buy some supplies. Luckily there was an electronics store nearby so I finally bought some replacement headphones, which was great. They are not the nicest things but they will get the job done.
After that we headed out of Aarau and began to make our way to Basel. The night before we had discussed our route with our hosts, who told us that the ride to Basel was mostly flat the whole way and very easy aside from one small climb. So when we were a couple miles from town and started to climb we didn't think too much of it. However, after we had been climbing for five miles and the roads were getting more and more steep, we decided to stop to take a break and check our route on our phones. To our disappointment we were on the right route and did have another mile or two of climbing to do. After our break neither one of us could really get going again for too long a time so we did ended up pushing the bikes most of the remaining way. This surprise mountain was a lot more demanding than expected, but at the top we did have a great view of the valley (and the nuclear power plant).
After we finally crested the mountain we did have a nice downhill descent. The rest of the riding after the summit was actually easy with mostly downhill or flat sections and we made great time (aside from one more really steep hill, but it was short so we could bust it out). Eventually at around 3:00 we found a little restaurant to eat lunch, where we had the best sandwich we have had since leaving the States.
After lunch we finished off the rest of the ride to Basel where we met our hosts. Our hosts are very nice people, if not a bit odd (from an American perspective). Since our host is vegetarian, for dinner we had pasta with salad and veggies. It was simple but still quite good (though I think maybe a certain ingredient was missing of the meat variety). That being said though they both were very nice, helpful, and accommodating. The guy also had a lot of experience with bike touring, having done a trip around the world, so that was really neat.
Anyway that is all I have for now. We have a relatively long ride tomorrow, we are leaving Switzerland and entering France, so it is off to bed. Best wishes and until next time.
n.b. We hit 500 miles on the odometer today... So that is awesome!
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