Bewolkt, etwas Regen im vormittag

We did learn some German during our ride yesterday morning. At our breakfast table place setting the hotel had provided a nice (in German) brochure that gave the day's weather forecast: "Bewolkt, etwas Regen im vormittag". A couple of hours into our ride we saw the "partly cloudy" disappear and then we got to experience the "etwas Regen" which we had guessed was probably something to do with rain. It was quite a downpour but our years of riding in RAGBRAI has taught us to be prepared with our rain jackets at hand. It didn't rain for too long and, as I told Lee, it definitely was a nice thought that even if it rained all day at the end of the day we would have a hotel room waiting for us instead of having to set up a tent in the rain.

Shortly before we reached our destination the rain stopped and we saw a cafe by the bike trail that looked promising. It was a wonderful find. The waitress spoke English, she seated us in a cozy corner table, the room was quite warm and we had hot soup and a cup of tea--exactly what we needed after our wet, cold ride.

We got back on the bike trail and were surprised at how close we were to Dresden. As we came into town we looked at each other and realized that neither of us had the phone number that Mike Tyler had given us. Mike and Cara are the missionaries who came to Dresden a couple of years ago to work with the church planting ministry here. They had reserved a hotel ahead of time for us. We did have the address of the hotel and found our way to the hotel. But we didn't have the Tyler's phone number or address to let them know we were here. Lee thought I had printed the information from their email and I thought he had it. And we were told by the hotel clerk that Internet cafes are hard to find and would be further away in the main part of the city. But she did have their house number so we made our way to the address, which was not far, and were able to determine which apartment was theirs.

It has been wonderful to have the Tyler's here to translate and explain all that they have learned about Dresden and the German people and the work that God is doing in this area. We spent the evening downtown and Cara explained some of the history and architecture behind the beautiful buildings. Our hotel was, once again, great accomadations with a delicious breakfast.

It looks like we will have another cloudy day, but, hopefully, not the rain showers. Mike has let us use his home office to do our time on the Internet. Cara goes to classes at the language school in the mornings and the 2 boys are at school this morning, as well.

We aren't sure which town is our destination for tonight but we look forward to another day riding along the beautiful Elbe River.