Day 17 - Walked today: 19 Km – Total walked so far 369Km – Bad Breisig

My turn to write a blog entry and I have to report one of my major disappointments of this journey.

We found scales in our room in Ruedesheim and I jumped on excitedly hoping to report a weight loss – my trousers had been feeling a bit looser. But I had put on 5 kg – a result I had not expected. So I asked Gary to see what happened to his weight. Blow me over – he had lost 5 kg and his little 50^th birthday pooch. We walked the same distance, ate the same things, were not particularly indulgent and he drank beer on top of that.

Life is a bitch sometimes!!! I know there might be some far fetched logical explanations like effect of Thyroid medication and muscle growth but frankly I do not care. One plus of this journey was supposed to be to loose those darn pounds that keep following me around.

So I decided to change my strategy for the evenings – no wine last night and a huge platter of salad for dinner................

This morning I felt like death warmed up when we started walking. I cannot remember that my rucksack ever felt that heavy and that putting one step in front of the other was so difficult. We got to Andernach only by virtue of my bloody determination not to stop until we got there. I spotted a Boots like supermarket and we bought some energy bars and some stuff you put in your water to make it more hydrating ( no idea how one can make water more hydrating but I did not care at that point).

Gary was a wonderful coach and my cheerleader, setting little targets for me to achieve. Let's walk to that orange house about 500 meters down the Rhein and we sit down there. I dragged myself with his help form bench to bench until the promenade like walk way along the Rhein run out into something a little more ruff and ready. The alternative would have been a hilly bicycle route which clearly was not an option today. My legs suddenly woke up on the adventure part of our walk. It was stony, grassy and slippy but somehow I found my stride and we made good time to Bad Breisig.

We found an enthusiastic employee in the local tourist information who manly tried not to be thrown by our request for a two bed room with a bath tub, quiet location and WLAN. We later realised that this resort is favoured by an older generation and there is probably not much call for on-line services. In the end we found a hotel with the help of a brochure they gave us. We managed to find a dodgy connection in the restaurant but it was enough to make Gary's little face light up.

Gary and I have always been close and we have been getting along really well since we started this walk. Today it is my song choice and it is dedicated to Gary for getting me through today. I would not want to do this walk with anybody else but him. As I am rubbish at remembering song titles and artists, here is the bit of text that matters for today (oh, and I had glass of wine or two – purely medicinal of course to keep my strength up -so we do not have a repeat of today): 'HELP'

but even I can remember that that is by the Beatles :)