Day 2

 “Traveling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things – air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky – all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it.” – Cesare Pavese

After an almost sleepless night, I tried to boost my spirits by appreciating everything what I had to get through the last day. This self motivation did not last long, especially when I recoiled in horror by finding out that my last strenuous effort in the evening just moved me the opposite direction and I had to bike all the way back. Furthermore, as I woke up, I could not move my knee – it felt like a nasty inflammation. Immediately I grasped after my medicaments for joints with the sincere hope that it would help. My riding was truly through the pain – luckily after getting through the worst moments at the beginning, the knee became a little bit less sensitive. It is like if you injure your hand – it hurts mostly at the beginning and the pain gradually eases away. In my case, it eased only to the point when I got back from always more frequent breaks and had to warm my knee up. The hellish pain is truly difficult to describe. I do not enjoy bitching over things that do not turn out how I expect them; therefore, I will remain rather short in these descriptions. In general I can only say that my first days definitely did not live to my expectations.

I pulled over to have a lunch at a bus stop in a small village where I later fell asleep. After waking up and jumping on my bike I realized that it cannot go on like this. I was unable to continue due to unbearable pain and tried to figure out what the problem could be. Interestingly, I found out that somebody was playing with my saddle and the high difference was so subtle that I did not realize that. However, my knee did and in that position it was utmost wrong from the physiological point of view. I set up my saddle properly and it was much, much better. My knee still hurt, but I could bike and that was the most important. I was happy beyond belief that this was not the bitter end of my Tour de Europe. The other night I could enjoy a good night sleep.  I was exhausted, but happy that form now own, everything will be just alright.

Link to photos