Day 7

Strasbourg has absolutely shafted me! Went to get my bike this morning, picked it up and cycled towards the hostel to collect my bags. 5 minutes in I thought I'd check the spoke and it was still broken. I went back to the shop and told them, he kicked off at his colleague and fixed it himself. On my way out I dropped my phone and cracked the whole screen, I took a deep breath and kept going. After about 45 minutes of cycling I heard a snap and another spoke broke.... I got off my bike, lay on the grass, almost cried and felt like throwing my bike in the river. After about 10 minutes of huffing I got up cycled back to the shop (with a squint wheel, AGAIN). I've realised I have too much weight on the back and as there is no way to install a front rack and panniers on to the front, because of the bike I have I need to keep everything on the back. The guy at the shop said he didn't know what to do apart from replace the back wheel completely which would take him a week to order, so pointed me out some other shops to try. Non of them were able to do anything either. I returned back to the first shop and he has told me to leave him with it for an hour. If he manages to fix it I will give him a big cuddle and get on my way again. I might also post a few things home that I could survive without. If I was to post home my jeans, shoes and some other little things it wouldn't kill me but would mean more time spent in smelly cycling gear. If he can't do anything about it, not really sure what i'm going to do. It's a good bike so it maybe just needs a slightly stronger wheel. I have faith in the little bald French man fixing it, he's got an hour to absolutely make my whole week!!

It's getting on a bit but I will still try and complete my 100km today and make it up to Neufgrange. It doesn't get dark till about 8 or 9 so should be ok. If it gets too much later I might need to stay another night here which I reeeeeeally don't want to do.

You better make it up to me France, you've been a right w**nker so far!!