Day 8 - 34km - which makes it a total of 200 km!!!!!!!!

It is Sunday and we have taken the day off. Yesterday we pushed ourselves to the limit by walking our furthest distance yet to reach the beautiful town of Worms. I am typing this from the Dom Hotel next to the cathedral, listening to the Sunday bells. We are both exhausted and have nothing planned for today that does not involve sleep, Internet or food. My sister Ulrike was so kind to find us accommodation that covered most of the following requirements: a bath tub rather than a shower (difficult to find in the inns of Germany but important for my tired legs), two beds (luckily most double beds in Germany consist of two seperate mattresses and a single duvet each which gives Gary and me at least a chance of s o m e sleep ) and wireless LAN. She managed to get it all!

A good nights sleep has been the biggest challenge so far – at home Gary and I are used to our own bedrooms in a blissfully quiet location. As I said in an earlier blog, we are physically tired but our minds have not had anything to do most of the day. We tend to fall asleep immediately when we go to bed and wake up 2 hours later tossing and turning to get comfortable without disturbing each other – we are not particularly successful as yet and are looking forward to today's upcoming siesta.

Back to walking....... yesterday we left behind the hills and forests of the Odenwald and Bergstrasse. We are still following the Nibelungenweg but have now also joined the E8, one of the European long distance walk ways which we will be following for the rest of our journey in Germany. Here you can see the profile of yesterdays walk: http://www.fernwege.de/d/nib/002/skizze/index.html which was thankfully pretty flat but also very boring with long straight man made walk ways through man made forests and tarmacked side roads through huge fields.

We have not met many walkers on our way but to our delight we bumped into a lovely couple yesterday who are walking from Cologne to Vienna, all 1600 km of it. They have the more difficult journey ahead because they will have to cross the alps. I hope they make it!

Whilst I am very tired today and glad that this computer is only two feet away from my bed, I am raring to carry on tomorrow. I am fueled by all the support we are getting especially from our families. My brother Juergen and my sister-in-law Luise were going to drive all the way from Erfurt to Worms to spend some time with us today. Because Gary and I were so tired we moved the meeting to a bit later in the journey. Aufgeschoben ist nicht aufgehoben! My mother calls me every night to see how we are doing. Gary talks to his mum every night too. She is very supportive and since she has found out that we keep a diary on-line she has been wondering if she should learn using a computer. Both my sisters have been absolute stars. Danke Maedels – ihr denkt halt mit!

I know the theme songs are Gary's baby but I am sure he will not mind if I announce our current choice for overall theme song for the journey:

Crazy - Gnarls Barkley

I remember when, I remember, I remember when I lost my mind
There was something so pleasant about that phase.
Even your emotions had an echo
In so much space

And when you're out there 
Without care,
Yeah, I was out of touch
But it wasn't because I didn't know enough
I just knew too much

Does that make me crazy
Does that make me crazy
Does that make me crazy
Probably

And I hope that you are having the time of your life
But think twice, that's my only advice
Come on now, who do you, who do you, who do you, who do you think you are,
Ha ha ha bless your soul
You really think you're in control

Well, I think you're crazy 
I think you're crazy 
I think you're crazy
Just like me

My heroes had the heart to lose their lives out on a limb
And all I remember is thinking, I want to be like them
Ever since I was little, ever since I was little it looked like fun
And it's no coincidence I've come
And I can die when I'm done

Maybe I'm crazy
Maybe you're crazy
Maybe we're crazy
Probably