Wrapping up day 6 I had the most scary experience so far last night, cycling through a thunderstorm. I had no chance rather than pushing on as I got taken by it by surprise, but the thought riding a piece of metal through thunder and lighting is not a comfortable one. It rained heavily as well, but rain, ice, wind, snow and all the others do not scare me, thunder does. The good bit was that I finally arrived in Ilmenau yesterday, with only 195km on the meter this time. Short day, but I also had three interviews and a dinner with my sister’s family in Erfurt as well, which added a good few hours to the day. It was a great day riding, cruising through and getting lost again in Leipzig, and then entering the ‘Tuscany of the North’ around Freyburg. After the last days mostly cycling through flat bits I simply loved some climbing again, and the area around Freyburg/Unstrut is a fantastic place to cycle through. With temperatures well above 20C it was proper summer, and the bottle needed refilling quite a lot, which was a great chance to meet some locals. Then I was off flying into Thuringia, and considering it only took me 6 days since I left Edinburgh left a smile on my face. I took the long way home, and cycled a big detour through Northern Germany, but managed to do roughly the same distance I did last time in 14 days in 6 days, that’s less than half of the time. When entering Erfurt I was greeted by a camera crew from the MDR Thueringenjournal, who did a feature for the evening news. Filming out of the car on a side road was great fun, have a look here for the final result in German. Next one in the schedule was a photo shoot and interview with a newspaper on Erfurt’s Anger, which is (again in German) online here (I did not choose to make the victory sign though). And then the next one, a nice chat with Stephan Ganss from Antenne Thüringen, which was great fun and sealed with an iced coffee. After all that I was up for the next date with my sister’s family for dinner, before finally hitting the road again at 6.40pm headed for Ilmenau, another 50k away. After a great sunny day, the rain was back, as the humidity resulted in thunderstorms again. I finally found a bike shop who had a proper pump ( a real challenge in Germany and Holland), and then I was off again. With only 2 hours till darkness, I had to keep pedalling without doubt, and after making it through the rather scary thunderstorm I entered the Thuringian Forest again. It was a great feeling being back again, and I cannot wait to cycle through this beautiful place again, and then meet my family near Friedrichroda this afternoon. Another newspaper interview first, but I hope people get inspired by my trips and get on their bikes, and donate some pennies for the charities I am collecting funds for. If you would like to donate, feel free to do so here. Thanks!