I woke up to something I've not experienced for a while - the cold! To be fair, it was 5 am and I had a bit of altitude. Anyway, I got up and got some clothes on!

I wanted to get some decent miles in today, so the early start helped with that. It soon warmed up once the sun wasn't blocked by mountains.

The first part of the ride was fairly flat - just the odd bit of up and down, then I had a monster downhill section that went on for ages 😊

The weather wasn't great early on - well, it wasn't endless blue skies like I've got used to! But it was OK and it got gradually better throughout the day.

I stopped for some breakfast quite late and went straight for a jambon salad baguette. I also got some kind of pastry thing with cherries in it. I don't know what it was called, but it was delicious! 8.5/10 type stuff!

Once I was down off the mountains, I was riding through flat farmland. Miles and miles of straight roads cutting across the fields. It was a bit like riding in the fens - only I had mountains on my left and mountains in my right!

I also had a massive headwind. I've really not had much luck with the wind on this trip! So it wasn't long until I was hungry again. I stopped at a boulangerie (the Swiss seem much more clued up on what are reasonable opening hours!) to get some food. I fancied a ham and cheese baguette, but the lady could only offer ham or cheese. So I had both 😋 I also had some kind of éclair (caramely) and a coffee. That lot came to about 4 million pounds. Switzerland is expensive!

I'd busted out 50 odd miles by this point, so had plenty of time to knock out a few more. Most of the morning's riding had been on roads, but I was starting to get more signed cycle paths. Technically, some of these were still roads, but hardly any motorised traffic uses them.

I wanted to get to Solothurn as I knew there are several sites nearby, so I just kept pushing on. I suddenly started to feel really hungry again so I was keeping an eye open for a shop. Unfortunately I was between towns at this point so didn't find anything until I was nearly in Solothurn. I spotted a petrol station, went in and grabbed armfuls of sandwiches, crisps, chocolate and drinks. I bought so much I figured it would do for later. I ate most of it there and then!

I arrived at the campsite and got checked in. I chatted to an American guy pitched near me who has been riding around Switzerland. There are a couple of local guys next to me who seem like a good laugh, so all is good in this little corner of the campsite.

I think I'll head into town in a bit, if only for a walk - I certainly won't need a full meal tonight.

Tomorrow I head over some more hills to Basel, then on into Germany where I'll follow the Rhine for a bit and see where it takes me.