The journey ends

To celebrate this five month journey in Europe and the UK I've rewarded myself with three hotel nights in Kensington West in the centre of London. Like Paris, I wanted to give myself enough time to visit all those iconic locations with some extra special activities like The 39 Steps showing in Piccadilly Circus.

Tower Bridge

 

The Tower of London - keeper of the Crown Jewels and several Queens waiting to be executed

 

The most photographed crossing on the planet - Abbey Road as seen on the Beatles Abbey Road album 1970

Abbey Road - home for the Beatles recordings and Dark Side of the Moon for a Pink Floyd

 

The ultimate Welsh spelling test

 

 

It has a large population of around 14 million but it felt no different to any European city or even Sydney. I've been impressed with the public transport and rail systems of Europe. They're very efficient at moving people around but then they need to with the very high population.

Southern Ireland

 

Southern Ireland

Edinburgh

It's been a real challenge to test my abilities to connect with resources and people along the way, learn some of the local languages, customs and cuisines. The people have all been very helpful and some providing generous time and hospitality as a guest in ther homes. I've made new friends and it helped me to understand life in rural Northern France, Netherlands, Southern Bavaria, Luxembourg and The United Kingdom.

Edinburgh Castle

There have also been logistical challenges negotiating several city centre stations across Europe - Vienna, Venice, Salzburg and regional stations where major development is occurring,

And because a 12 platform station has to support dozens of regular services across Europe you will not know the platform of departure until 15-20 mins before it leaves. Then you have to be sure where the platform is and where the lifts are when you have the bicycle and bags to manage. If you have to connect with other regional trains you may only have 4-5 mins to get from one train to the other.

My advice If you're planning a cycling trip like mine is to definitely ride in Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands but backpack France, Greece, Italy and the UK as the cycling infrastructure is virtually non-existent.

A big thanks to all the people I met and support form family and friends. Now off home to Australia for a final few weeks riding to climatise.

Posted with Blogsy