It had rained all night – and the comfortingly familiar sound of rain on tent had given me the best night’s sleep for months. It was still raining as we packed up.

And it never stopped all day. Officially wet.

But a good day’s ride nonetheless, always following the swollen River Aare upstream. When even the locals are watching the river level in alarm you know its wet. Breakfast took a while to find, but Helen eventually talked a ham sandwich and coffee out of a pizzeria in Aarburg, right under the castle.

Most of the riding was very rural – on all small lanes and tracks. Lovely country. Except that the wind and rain were consistently in our faces.

We reached Buren in the afternoon – where the course of the Aare has been diverted through the Bielsee in a canal.

In Biel/Bienne (so good they named it twice – once in German and once in French) we were grateful to be able to change to French. And to check into a warm, dry hotel. Not the poshest but welcome (polystyrene cups in the room and Haribot sweets for greeting. Actually, I thought the latter was great, because I have a Wiggle-induced Haribot addiction). Biel has a nice harbour on the Bielsee but it doesn’t look so good in the rain. The forecast is no better tomorrow.

Helen’s track of the day: after lunch when the rain was getting a bit much I thought that on usual days off I would not venture out . I should be at home in my kitchen baking cakes and listening to my favourite music, I thought. So any track from Paulo Nutini’s latest album will do, and as it was in my head the most I choose
Let me down easy.
And when all this summer activity nonsense is over I look forward to a girls’ night out with Catherine to see Paolo Nutini in Newcastle Arena!