Day 23: London to Brugge. Approx 45 miles.

Up at 6am, brutal! Packed up the shit once more and headed to Victoria to catch the train. Just made it due to getting lost in South London, again! A wee nap on the train was excellent but perhaps meant that I wasn't on top of my game cause I must have taken ages to get to the boat...it left without me! Two hours in Dover then which wasn't the prettiest place I have been to on the trip. The white cliffs are still there but are slightly obscured by a massive brutal port complete with concrete and cranes and a number of rather incongrouous 70s buildings. Rank.

Anyway eventually got a boat heading to Dunkirk in northern France. Official Europe! Terror! Although I felt confident in my organisational skills in London, I realised that I had forgotten to get a decent map of either northern France or Belgium. Good times. The compass proved its worth by directing me east. Everyone seemed to think Brugge was directly east in a staight line so thats where I went.

A few hours later, in the dark, still pedalling...oh dear. Folk were now telling me that I couldn't cycle to Brugge but the hostel was booked! Onwards! Around 9pm, fucking AGES after leaving the Horse in London I arrived at Lybeers Hostel, Brugge.

Note: God knows what the employment policy is at this hostel because everyone who works there is nuts. This is one of them:

Over 500 miles done. Nice.