Moments on my bike and other stories...: Day 0

Sunday, 8 July 2012

Day 0

Bikes on top of each other

Leaving Hull

I don't know why but I couldn't really sleep last night. It might have been the fact that I ate too much at the buffet or the gentle swaying of the Ferry or even the narrow cabin bed but I didn't sleep very well. I woke up at 5.49am, got up and had a shower. Whilst in the shower, the announcement for breakfast came over the internal cabin speakers.
Talking about food, I am absolutely starving! Breakfast was the last time I ate. Some bad planning, mostly not having anything to drink either apart from the last water from my bike bottle that was left from a ride. The thing is, after breakfast we made our way to deck and drank in the industrial sites of Europoort. Huge ships came past which made us take lovely pictures. Getting off the boat was so easy, it was the Dutch way as bikes get priority so we whizzed down the ramp to passport control. In the meantime, I was scanning the area to see where our taxi was - and found him, just beyond passport control. This was a taxi which I mostly correspond with and arranged with, through Twitter. DE REYERTRAVEL! Worth contacting them if you need transport (with bikes) from Europoort to Rotterdam.
We made it to the station in good time where I had to queue for about 30 minutes to buy bike tickets, yes bikes need to pay too here in Europe. The platform was overcrowded with people who missed an earlier train so ours was very full. Bikes were piled onto of each other to ensure thy are all onboard. The drama queen winked at us in Brussels when the train to Based bore down. We were on te train having made it to the right platform with fully laden bikes when the announcement came that the locomotive has failed to start. So back onto the platform, down the stairs to another platform for a train to Luxembourg which we knew was the way we were going to go.
Getting to Luxembourg was strange as on the platform next to ours (where we got in), stood a Based train, similar to the one that broke in Brussels AND it is 50 minutes delayed. Really odd. Anyway, got on stand we are now about 45 minutes from our destination.
No food or water for the last 12 hours is quite challenging, so I think we will find somewhere to get a drink or a bite to eat as soon as we get there as the hostel shuts at 10pm and I'm not sure if they are still serving food.
I was right, they wee not serving food at 9.45 but then who would? Luckily we stopped at a small supermarket between Basel and Lörrach and got two tubs of Pringles, a 1.5 litre Sprite, a pepperami in a breadstick and some cup a soup which we will not make.
I've just worked out, we've started our journey this morning in Holland, next stop was Belgium, the stop after that was Luxembourg. After Luxembourg we went south through France, stopped in Switzerland and then biked through the border to sleep in Germany!! No wonder I am tired! 6 countries in one day, phew !