I am in Dresden. have done the rare thing of paying for a hostel, but feel incredible after a good nights sleep, soft duvet, giant white pillow, and a huge buffet breakfast that expands my stomach.
I poisoned myself the night before with day old feta, or river water from a drink bottle with a growing green residue. So my sleep was nauseaus and uncomfortable. Groaning with stomach ache beside a river, flickering light from roadways, and the thunder of passing trains. When day comes, whatever battle that has been fought in my guts has drained all my resources. Every joint and muscle ached, and I struggled to ride rose to find water. Struggled to hold my aching head up. Long rests on park benches and in grass,. Litres of liquid, but my squirming guts say no to food.
I cross the boarder into Germany, along the Elbe river. Its a beautiful quiet road, a corridor of high green hills. At the edge of the boarder, in a dramatic ravine, an enclave of chinese sells cheap fabrications of everything.
I take the worng road to Dresden, and instead of following the flat river path, start lurching up hills. muscles creak in my exhausted condition. My reward is a long descent, through torrential rain, to stand wet and shivering in the city centre.
Caroline helps me find a hostel, and wearily `i collapse into a bed.