After 9 days on the road it was time to have a full rest day.  Although we had had a couple of short days it’s not the same as just staying in the same place – particularly when this was with Julie, a generous and interesting warmshowers host who opened her house up to us as if it was our own. As well as the bliss of having lovely meals cooked for us and a washing machine for clean clothes, it was great to have interesting conversation beyond ‘where are you from’ and ‘where are you going’. It was also good to have time to to sort out niggles with the stove and start to plan the next section.

We had inadvertently arranged our day off on a Monday when all the museums and galleries were closed – but that did mean we really relaxed without trying to cram too much in and in the end stayed most of the day at home.

I had problems with my Wahoo bike computer and David had managed to persuade them to send us a new one, care of a local bike shop that turned out to be only a mile or so away. When we rang in the morning the parcel still had not arrived but the tracking told us it was due to be delivered that day.  In the end we decided to go to the bike shop anyway to get some new inner tubes.  Luckily the delivery arrived while we were there – in fact 2 parcels as Wahoo had sent us 2 new bike computers!  Better than not having one that did not work but we now have the headache of carrying it until they let us know how to return one of them!

David had brought his wig and bands to show the students in San Diego (although he then forgot to take them on the day), so we amused Julie by showing them to her and trying to explain why such fancy dress was required for British justice!  Photos were sent to her husband and daughter with great amusement at her new profession.

A good recuperation day and looking forward to the next section of the trip.