I have a horrible feeling my blogging is boring, so I’ll keep entries brief until stuff starts happening.

27 to 28 January

• 12:00 to 12:00: train from Waverley to Newcastle
• 15:00 to 15:30: taxi from Newcastle to North Shields
• 17:00 to 10:00: next day: ferry from North Shields to IJMuiden
• 12:00 to 12:30: coach from IJMuiden to Amsterdam
• 14:33 to 16:54: train from Amsterdam to Düsseldorf

Cyclemeter: https://cyclemeter.com/3432aa395de1d505/Cycle-20260227-1207-84554

On the train to Newcastle, we shared a table with a couple of women who were going to the ‘a place in the sun’ show in Manchester. They are thinking about moving to Spain: one seemed dead set, the other just happy to think about moving. We hope they find their dream, but I think they were already just enjoying the journey to the dream.

We each have a big rucksack. Elly also has her handbag, and a small rucksack dangling down her front. We are also sharing trundling a large wheelie case, and the buses to North Shields tend to be crowded and have no luggage space – hence the taxi.

Our cabin was on deck 11, the highest accommodation deck. Only deck 12 – the skybar – was higher, and it was closed. After dumping luggage, we sat in the coffee-bar letting the world evaporate. Dinner was the usual buffet: for me this almost always involves lashings of lentil dhal and chips. Oh my HBA1C!

The first actual – but minor hassle – arose in the morning when it was announced that the gangway had technical issues. We sweated in deck 7 next to the stairs to the gangway, then were guided down the vehicle ramp to customs. Elly suggested we could post stuff home to not need the heavy wheelie case – which courier did we like least? Someone standing next to us was amused by my reply ‘OK, so we give the courier our used undies’.

In contrast to the buses in the UK, the coach has under-cabin luggage space, comfort and drivers who keep the queues amused. Love it! Despite the worry about being delayed by the defective gangway, we were an hour ahead of schedule. This mean we could refresh caffeine and glucose levels, and I could do a tiny bit of shopping before our train. Again, a smooth journey, easy check-in to the hotel, a walk to a fully vegan Vietnamese restaurant, then we returned to the hotel via shopping at Lidl for overnight snacks.

So a page of ‘no problems here’ as the tangerine shit-gibbon does it again. Time to sleep… Tschuss!

1 to 2 March

• 11:26 to 16:29: train from Düsseldorf to München
• 11:27 to 15:32: train from München to Wien
• U1 to Schwedenplatz, then U4 to Rossauer Lände

Cyclemeter: https://cyclemeter.com/3432aa395de1d505/Cycle-20260301-1018-45448

Breakfast was at a BackWerk outside Düsseldorf main station. We then trundled back to the hotel to collect our luggage and then the station, where we bought lunch at another BackWerk. My triumph of the day was when someone I spoke to on the train asked if I was Dutch. Hooray – although crap, my German is at least a bit continental! But my dummes Touristenereignis was asking for the deposit on some drinks bottles in the train buffet. I got quite a lecture on how train buffets don’t do this, and that I’d need to go to a supermarket.

I had developed a couple of first-world problems: my short lightning cable had died and my long one was now moribund. Huge thanks to Elly for purchasing a replacement at Edeka.

Dinner was at the Hans im Gluck on Luisenstrasse. By then, my feeling, at least about blog-worth events was ‘so far, so nothing to say’ – apart from that we are both noticeably more relaxed and happier than we have been.

For possibly the first time ever, I was glad I woke before 9am – DB had emailed that our train to Vienna would now start from Munich East, about 5 miles from Munich Central. Ah well, this is what U-Bahns are for. The train to Vienna stayed about 15 minutes behind schedule, but again this wasn’t a problem for us. I feel enormously lucky that announcements were repeated in English. Are visitors from overseas treated this well in the UK – of course not!

Our apartment is only 2 minutes trundle from Rossauer Lände U-Bahn station, so we just dumped out luggage and went to a nearby Spar Gourmet to buy essentials – and in my case marvel at vegan ice-cream offerings. Dinner was at a burger-bar in Schwedenplatz (journey inevitably cyclemetered), followed by an episode of Lucifer, blogging, and bed.