It’s always nice leaving early when there’s no traffic, no noise and a light mist hanging over the Rhine in Switzerland. A great chance to knock off some of the 100 miles, like approaching a big run chase at cricket.

After a few more gravel tracks (I’m just praying my tyres hold out) my first stop was Steckborn for my homemade breakfast. The 20 miles had provided wonderful countryside, orchards and waterfront scenery.

After that I headed over to Konstanz in Germany and on to Staad to take the car ferry for 4km across the Bodensee to Meersburg.

The northern route round the lake is considered to be more ‘interesting and attractive’ than the southern route through Germany. It also goes through Austria, the fifth of six countries, so it was a must for me.

And it was a cyclist hotspot especially given that it was Sunday; think of the London to Brighton cycle ride, a bit chaotic at times. I estimate that 75% of cyclists were on electric bikes. The whole 30 miles to Bergetz provided more great waterfront, village and countryside scenery and Lindau island was an interesting stop on route.

Arriving at Bergetz in Austria I was on schedule for a reasonable finish time when my navigation let me down. Although convinced that I was following the Rhine south on adjacent paths, I was partially surprised that there were no signs, but they had been patchy in Austria. And then when the path suddenly finished, I did some research and yes, I was following the wrong river. A later Google search shows that for a 1% loss in dehydration we lose 5% of our cognitive ability. I was actually quite thirsty, but just about retained enough brain power to get me back on route 1.5 hours later than planned. Luckily I had a tailwind and plenty of adrenaline built up from letting slip so near the end; a cycling version of Bazball preventing an embarrassing loss.

So after crossing the ceremonial border into Liechtenstein, the sixth country and rolling up at the Youth Hostel @7:15 with 114 miles on the computer, I was very relieved and exhausted, but rewarded with a super chicken risotto just before the kitchen closed. Overall it had been a great day of cycling, if a little longer than planned.