In the aftermath of the storm that had passed over the night before we spent the morning drying out anything that had gotten wet. I had left my sleeping bag and shoes out in the rain and Finn had left his Bivvy zip slightly open so we both ended up laying out most of out sleeping gear to dry in the sun.   
We waited until maybe 10 and then started to pack up as most of our stuff had dried off and the sun disappeared behind some clouds. We set off to Monchau where we would be staying in nearby Höfen with Siegfried. We rode along access roads in a slight drizzle most of the morning through the Eifel national park. 

  
  
As we crossed the German border we stopped to take a photo. A friendly German lady who was just out walking her dog passed the two of us, drenched from the morning on the rain and asked if we wanted a warm shower or anything! First impressions of Germany are pretty good.

  
We started a long descent into the river valley that held the town of Monschau. We hadn’t heard of it before and weren’t really sure what to expect but it was beautiful. Apparently a famous tourist destination among Germans and Belgians alike, it’s a picturesque old world town set in a lush river valley. We wandered for a bit, got some food the rode out to the neighbouring Höfen where Siegfried was located.

  
  
  
A brief climb out of the river valley later and we were at Höfen and soon at Siegfrieds place. Heidi, Siegfriedis wife welcomed us and the two of them were so generous, we were very grateful for the warm hospitality. We were able to have a shower and get change into dry clothes before they rusted up a bbq from leftovers of one they had had the day before. And it was delicious.

 

 
After dinner they invited us in their evening walk around the area. When we got back to the house they sat us down and informed us that they were leaders of a beer tasting club back in their home town and broke out some Belgian brews for us all to try. It was a fantastic evening with the two of them and we felt so lucky to have run into Siegfried that day by the side of the road.

Tomorrow we would ride into Cologne where we would have another off day, but the great evening provided by Siegfried and Heidi felt like we had already had one.
On a somewhat related note, we’ve finally sorted something out so that Finn should be able to get his photos up here when he wants, wifi permitting of course. We’re leaving Strasbourg tomorrow morning ( writing this at 11pm local time) with a goal of arriving in Munich by the weekend. Hopefully once there we can get Finns pics out, he’s got much better photos on his camera than I do on the iPad.