Day 26

I woke up at 5am without any issues very eager to get going. The morning wild poo, packing, putting all the stuff back I used for the shelter and the first bowl of muesli was all done by 6. I put some music on to try and entice everyone up. Tom emerged within 10 minutes, followed shortly after by Chris. Michelle didn't take kindly to my 'words of encouragement' when she failed to get up and had a bit of an outburst. She belligerently stayed in her tent for another half an hour or so. Mark also was reluctant to get up - leaving it until the last minute when Michelle started getting ready. We finally got going at around 7.45. Within an hour or so we found a supermarket and got the daily food shop in. I used this as an opportunity to catch up a bit with my blog as for once I didn't eat too much. The morning's cycling wasn't great with slow cycle lanes and motorists not liking it when we ventured into the road. The weather wasn't great either with on-and-off rain. We got to Hamburg by about midday, and found a 'Big Mama's' diner in the city which we stopped at for lunch. This was a great shout - massive portions of quality food at a reasonable price :) . Mark was leaving us here, as he was heading to Berlin to stay with a friend, planning to rejoin us again in France in a week or so. After saying goodbye to Mark the four of us pushed on. I was feeling pretty sluggish after the burger so got the chocolate out. The afternoon's cycling was unfortunately very similar to the morning's with slow cycle lanes. We stopped at a bakery late in the afternoon and consumed some pastries along with stuff from the supermarket over the road to keep costs down. There was a tourist place so Chris went in to ask about directions. With some helpful advice we made a plan for the rest of the day and set off. The evening's ride was far far better than earlier in the day as some delightful country roads presented themselves to us. We reached a town at around 8.30pm and did a quick supermarket shop before scouring around looking for somewhere to camp. We found ourselves in what was like a big industrial estate, and after 15-20 minutes I managed to find a small patch of grass conveniently hidden behind a small office building out of sight from the road. After squeezing our tents into the limited space we had some food (including finally seeing off the last of the barrel of crisps) before going to sleep at around 11.30pm. I set my alarm for 4.30am for a morning run.