Well we’re off again, this time without bikes, to revisit the scenes of some of our triumphs de Loreans. Both of us are a little shop-soiled at the moment. I can’t walk more than a mile without my calves starting to seize up, and cycling up any kind of hill is taxing. (Yes, there are hills in the Netherlands.) Elly may speak about her own issues – it’s not my place to do so, at least not here.

Saturday 19th

As ever, I’m cyclemeter-mapping journeys, not always successfully. This is supposed to be Saturday’s train journey from Waverley to Newcastle. More successful was this mapping our our coach-trip from Newcastle Station to North Shields. Less successful was finishing all we needed to do before leaving – both of us spent the time at Newcastle chained to our laptops.

Once on board the ferry, the time was passed with attempting crosswords, eating, drinking, and watching the sea. And so we bobbed on into Sunday. But as you can see below, it had been a trying day: our train got wet, our ferry ran aground and we are basically all at sea.

Sunday 20th

Well, we arrived OK in IJMuiden, apart from an unusual amount of ship-wiggling as we approached the berth. The disembarkation and hop to the coach to take us to Amsterdam Centraal was OK, apart from the normal passports-pinchpoint. Our plans to go on to Zaandam came slightly adrift: all direct trains today were cancelled. We were told to go by train to Amsterdam-Sloterdijk station, then take the dreaded rail-replacement bus. But actually this was OK: the way to the bus stop was fine, we could pay for the bus journey with our OV-chipkaarts (there was a check-in station built into the lamp-post at the bus stop), and the ride was smooth. It was just a little painful and sweaty to walk from where we arrived in Amsterdam-Sloterdijk station to the bus-stop, and there were a few interesting changes in direction.

After checking in, and relaxing on the hotel’s canal-side terrace, we spent the rest of the day pottering and shopping. I did manage to leave my insulin where we at dinner, but realised this before they closed. They’d looked after it for me. (Also, Elly is carrying another set of pens, needles and cartridges.)

Monday 21st

Is that really only yesterday? It was our first day of making like tourists (or our million-and-oneth in other lights), so we went into Amsterdam, then to the Resistance Museum. I can’t say I enjoyed it – there is so much there that makes me wish humans had never existed, or at least I wasn’t one. (Not that I don’t wish these most of the time.)

After our return to Zaandam, we watched the silliest superhero film ever, ate and slept so we could be up ‘early’ for onwards travels. You might like to know that ‘brains travel on bikes’, that at least some Amsterdam trams have onboard ticket-sellers, and that you can teleport to and from a coffeeshop in Sloterdijk.

Tuesday 22nd

We are on the 11:10 from Amsterdam Centraal to Berlin Ostbahanhof. Our Berlin hotel is right by the Hauptbahnhof, so there may be an extra station to station bit of travel. Hey, I’ll be in a country where I vaguely speak the language!