It's been a day I was expecting to come, one where you wonder wtf you are doing.
It started brilliantly leaving Nauen nice and early, in perfect weather. 20 ish miles of continuous cycle paths (50 from Berlin) with only occasional need to cross roads.
Then all of a sudden Germanys wondrous bike paths disappeared, the rain started coming down and I had no choice but to ride a fast and busy road with no space for bikes. I was pedalling as hard as possible to get off the road asap but it went on and on.
When I eventually did get off, the 'faultless' google maps started letting me down too. It was trying to get me to go down routes that weren't there or back on to far too busy roads. I was getting very pissed off with it all.
I'd opted to go to Gardelegen today which should have been 61 ish miles, my absolute limit at the moment.
However with google maps taking me in circles reaching my destination would have meant riding about 75 miles. Yes unbelievably somehow 15 ish miles was added by the sheer confusion on my maps.
Just as I was riding into a town about 20 miles from Gardelegen an amazing couple pulled up in the camper van. With broken English they wanted to check I was fine. I was ok and just wanted to get going because it was getting late but they warned me that the rest of the route was more busy roads with no cycle paths.
In about a millisecond I decided to find accommodation in the town I was on the fringe of. My mood instantly much better as I now only had a mile or so to ride to find a new hotel. They were my angels for the day. I wanted to chase them and give them both a massive hug but they'd gone.
Anyway, as the first 20 miles tomorrow is busy roads with no cycle paths I'm getting a train 90 miles to Hanover just to be sure 😉
I know from experience not to overdo it to start with and a rest day tomorrow will help my muscles repair.
55 miles done in 7 hours today despite google wank maps telling me it should have taken 4 hours 20 mins

Absolutely love Berlin. I'm a bit gutted not to be spending more time there. Toyed with the idea of staying 2 nights but peeled myself away.... just
I stayed at my old mates Chris's flat in kiezenplstemscuzzenkoppfenn a really cool area of Berlin. We went out last night and got completely shit faced so didn't expect to be leaving today. Anyway after waking up at 11am we went for a quick breakfast/lunch and then I hit the road.
I had no idea where I was going or how far I'd get. I just put Amsterdam in google maps and hoped for the best.
Cycle paths galore and yet to find anything resembling a hill.
I rode 30 miles to a little town called Nauen. I'm going to stay put now and have a long sleep and get over my hangover.
Plan to wake up early as poss tomorrow and do as many miles as possible. I want to get to Amsterdam by the 22nd so many many miles to go for someone who is completely without training and fitness

i saw this gimp walking around the airport.

couldn't believe it when he ended up sitting next to me on the plane. The poor Stag

made it to Heathrow. Had to shuffle weight around at airport because bike box was well over weight despite feeling like I've taken much less stuff this time round.
Excited and nervous because unlike the last trip I've hardly trained and I've hardly planned anything really! Time for some inter railing ;)

Just a quick test. I'm updating this website a little