The other day Mary asked whether the heat affected our MH. I replied with a resounding YES.

We started our “official” cycle route from Schaffhausen in Switzerland bound for Hoek van Holland along the Rhine Valley EuroVelo 15 path.

After our interesting train ride we had checked out the Rhine Falls, taking a short boat ride into the falls during a thunderstorm. It was hilarious. It was a very warm night, but we had our large window wide open with a fan blowing, so we slept ok.

The next morning was glorious. The path was gently undulating through the woods. There were pretty traditional villages with fountains where we could refill our water bottles and dunk our heads in the clear fresh water. We reached a charming village where we stayed the night.  It was hot, but we were OK.

Day two was hotter, but there were woods on the way to Basel, so the temperature was pleasant. By the afternoon it was boiling. Our route moved to the French side of the Rhine up to the fortified town of Neuf-Brisach. No breeze. At one stage we found a brook and dangled our feet in it. At night I remembered the trick for dealing with menopausal hot flushes and lay with a damp towel over me.

Day three we continued through France along by the canal linking the Rhone and Rhine rivers. It was rarely shaded. By 11am we reach Strasbourg where we found an open air pool with parkland. We stayed there all afternoon before dragging ourselves away for a short ride to our hotel.

It was the first air-conditioned room since we started. In the night I cracked. I couldn’t cope with the thought of continuing in the unbearable heat set to continue for several more days. I was crying. I was itchy. I was scared that I was starting the plummet into depression. 

“I want to go home”. 

D said “Fine”.  

The irony that this happened whilst in a cool room was not lost on either of us.

The next morning we cycled to the nearest train station where an extremely helpful lady sorted our trains up to just inside Netherlands. I was continually on the brink. Officially tandems are only allowed on Dutch trains if you are registered blind. We thought we’d wing it, staying on local trains off peak times. We were lucky. 

When we reached Den Haag we cycled to nearby Scheveningen (a place name used during the war to discern whether you were Dutch or a German spy) in search of a coastal breeze. We settled down to a loooong lunch in a friendly marina-side bistro till it was time to take the dune path down to the Hook for our return ferry. Fortunately, as I didn’t know how long the planned trip would take in our original plan, I made a guess and booked flexi tickets to allow for changes. This really paid off.

Now we’re home and the temperatures here have calmed, I know that I wasn’t slipping into depression, I just couldn’t handle the heat, like nearly everyone else. As our diaries are still free due to our changed return we are riding to the coast this afternoon and will return tomorrow morning allowing us to snaffle back a little bit of holiday.

Susannah

A Moodscope member