5: A Day along the Loire

Ugh, we hat set the alarm for 7, knowing that we wanted to get away early. We made it to breakfast by 8 and after picking up our sandwiches from the boulangerie and loading the bikes on the car we were on the road by 9.

We drove to Muides-sur-Loire and parked the car next to the bridge and then were off and running (riding) by 10. We had planned to ride to Orleans and take the train back but ended up riding to St. Hilaire-St. Mesmin (where I found the perfect picnic place) and decided to ride all the way back for a total of 77km!

[map style="width: 300px; height:300px; float:left; margin:10px 20px 0px 0px; border: 1px thin #777777;" gpx="http://saras-bike-travels.de/wp-content/uploads/gpxFiles/20130827_day4_reduced.gpx"] It was a beautiful ride - a bit on the cool side with lots of clouds, some of which were quite dark, but we lucked out and didn't get rained on. We stopped for coffee on the way north in Beaugency (I picked up my face cream at the drugstore for 2€ less than I pay in Augsburg!) and tried to visit the rose garden outside of Meung-sur-Loire but were foiled due to the fact that it's closed on Tuesdays. 🙁

The picnic spot was indeed divine and the ride back was a bit sunnier than the ride up. The downside was the strong wind - ooooeeeee! Made the going rather tough. Rode some in Werner's wind shadow.

Were back at the hotel by about 7pm. Werner took a quick dip in the pool after which we went to dinner at the local pizza restaurant (yum, merguez pizza!) and then hit the hay rather late by our standards (after 11).