The day begins wakening up to the beautiful sights of the Rotterdam Europort.

And a 20 ish mile ride into Rotterdam itself in order to catch the train to Brussels. There is not much I can write about that ride to be honest. It was tedious beyond belief. It was this

And this

And then some of this

You can’t fault the Dutch for their cycling paths – absolutely superb – but this one was of those rides where a slight bend was to be celebrated!

In order to amuse myself I composed a song in the style of continental hardcore dance – it had one word, sung in what wold most definitely be an offensive Dutch porn type accent – that word – Ooooroport. Over and over.

Also in order to amuse myself I decided to pretend I was riding a single speed and made a pact with myself not to change gears once for the rest of the ride to the station. A decision which would backfire spectacularly on numerous occasions. The worst being almost run over by a tram (I looked the wrong way) and couldn’t get moving (I had chosen one of my biggest gears – idiot) – massively annoying the driver and all it’s delightfully angry \ pissing themselves passengers.

The decision also allowed me to work up a small sweat as I tackled the Oooroport switch backs: Which accounted I think for the entire 80m of climbing across the whole ride!

The only other exciting part of the ride was the tunnel. The tunnel itself is impressive – getting a fully loaded bike down the escalators not so impressive – a motif that was to be repeated later in the day. Queue more annoyance and tutting.

All in though, it was a decent start to the day – largely uneventful – which is nice at the start of a trip. Also uneventful was the train from Rotterdam to Brussels – travelling with +50kg of bike an luggage makes embarking/disembarking trains stressful – and this one was a delight. A very good motif indeed.

I had a few hours to kill in Brussels before my sleeper train – so I typically decided to find a bar nearby (easy) and have a few beers. A few too many perhaps, but hey ho. It was after my third I had the genius idea of getting Uber eats to deliver me wine, beer, pastries and assorted maize based snacks for the sleeper. It’s genius because if you are travelling on your own – there is next to no way of leaving your bike whilst you do a grocery shop in the dodgy part-of town – which train stations always are – and Brussels midi seamed to excel in this area!!

As is often the case, after a few beers I started randomly talking to folk – this is Michael and Lukas – fiercely Flandrian and delighted to explain how their English was better than their French – obviously it was excellent. I made up for my shit language skills by woooing them with my exploits in the Ronde, Liege Bastogne Liege and Roubaix (taking care to mention I was voted king of the cobbles by my Penge pals – omitting the part about it being a sympathy vote obvs) I still have my Penge KotC cobble – on my windowsill – a prized possession.

It was time for the train and what I suspected would be chaos getting my bike to the platform and onto the train – so gave myself plenty of time. On the platform I me Thierry – he works for the Belgian railway – lovely fella. He was telling me with real pride about his son – a keen junior cyclecross champion and a name to look out for – perhaps Van Aert will be looking over his shoulder in years to come. We chatted for a good 20 mins about cycling and in particular the worlds which are on tomorrow – was lovely chatting to him he I hope as he reads this (hanging out for follower number 5 here!!) he’ll remember to keep me up to date on his boys progress.

The sleeper logistics weren’t stressful at all – in fact getting bike on and settled was a breeze. My only stress (there always is one – something I need to work on) was if there would be anyone else in my Couchette. Mine was a four bed set up – but I was praying I might luck out and get it to myself.

I did luck out – massively – but didn’t get the compartment to myself. I did however get to share it with an incredible chap – David (seen here in the middle). The other 2 fella’s joined us later in the journey – Americans – but I guess travelling Americans are always slightly better than just Americans. I don’t really have much else to say about them – they kept themselves to themselves – and largely slept the whole journey.

David though… Well, pre-east coast interlopers joining us – we put the world to rights. David is Welsh, 10 years older than me, though you wouldn’t know it and of very similar political persuasion to myself.

I’ll say here that I’ve never written about anyone on here, knowing they will be reading it and in the case of David and Thierry I know that will be the case. So if I am honest I am not sure how much to write – I’m not a journalist – these ramblings are just my diary – something to remind me of where I’ve been, the shambles I’ve been in, the amazing rides, and the characters I’ve shared them with – which I chose to make public – you know if you are all out on your Netflix list someone might just find these pieces a slightly interesting distraction if for a few minutes…

I know a lot about David after that journey. He’s a fascinating, incredible and lovely chap. I think I can write this – but he’s battled cancer and won twice, he lives in Berlin with his partner (who is German) – they have 2 grown up kids (?) one at Uni back in Blighty – something she is loving – David less so. He’s done the London thing 35 years ago – struggled financially as a student (as most working class folk do) and done a variety of jobs. But the struggle to have any sort of life came to a head and he needed a change. Queue Maggie Thatcher <just wiping the spit off my shoe> she invented (we agreed this to be the only good thing she did – for the wrong reasons) a programme to train for and position British citizens that passed the test (David did) to be placed in positions, representing the UK in the European Parliament/Administration. That move changed everything for David – essentially taking him from a a standard TEFL type job, struggling, to becoming a European Politician of sorts – not an MEP – but a Eurocrat (his words).

What a change – and really the making of him – I think he would say that. We talked a lot around the horror of Brexit, of London life, and at least from his side, parenting. Is obvious he is a family man, his caring attitude is writ all over the way he talks and handles himself.

He’s invited me to breakfast with him and his partner at their place in Berlin tomorrow – which I am very much looking forward to. I’m hoping the invite is still there after reading this!!

Like I said – I never really write about folk on this rubbish blog – but I do feel those hours – and a few wines – chatting will be easily the highlight of this whole trip.

Arriving in Berlin at 6 in the morning is fantastic. Yes, I was double knackered – sleeper and ferry do not make for restful nights. But cycling across an almost empty city to my hotel – especially after an incredible journey – well it just put a huge smile on my face.

Had a couple of hours kip – and then took myself out to the only thing I absolutely had to do whilst here. What was that…

MUSTAFA’s Kebap

I tried when I was here in October, but the wait was over 2 hours. Today I suffered – yes I queued an hour and a half – but it was worth it. Chapeau Mustafa.

I bloody love kebabs – everyone knows that. And this is the place – the Donner Mecca you might say. In fact Berlin is in general – they even have kebab shops on the platform of the underground – get in!!

If Kebababus – idea of Latte’s and I’s to install kebab vendors on London nightbuses – ever comes to fruition – it will be in this city.

The rest of today/tomorrow is tourism Davey, so no writing, just drinking/eating. Am on the road on Monday- and greatly looking forward to the rest of the adventure. Will do my best to mess up as much as possible – if for no other reason than to make this shit blog more interesting. Tschuss.