Mike's Grand Tour of Europe 2022

** Packed my bags again last night, pre- trip (Apologies to Elton John). So I'm on the road again (so to speak) after a totally 'chill-out week' in London with my wonderful sister & nephew, and my Jessie.  Hopefully I have taken sufficient medications for the next 4 weeks plus chargers plus cables.  Woke at 4:45am, beating my alarm by at least 45 minutes. Could never do that as a teenager or even in my twenties when I was perpetually sleep deprived. Don't remember when I started to be able to wake on time, or even beat the alarm, but apparently I am sort of able to do that now I am retired and don't have to get up in the mornings. ** Learned something about Eurostar today. There is more than one destination from London. There are direct routes to Paris and there are routes that go to Brussels via Lille. ** Train about to depart, a minute or two early. Off I go. Amsterdam, here I come. These trains run at an amazing speed. Note that the quoted 334.7 kph was amore...

 ** Woke really early today, well before the sun, and caught up with current news feeds. Jessie & I are going to walk down to the river and then walk along until we get to the Tate Britain. ** By the way, today is 48 days till the end of my tour. That's six weeks and six days to go. However, between now and then I will have about a week in the Netherlands, about a week in Belgium, about a week in a small village 30 minutes from Lille in the north of France, and a week in Paris, followed by either just under 2 1/2 weeks in London or a week in north-eastern France and a week in London or something else that might just come to mind.  ** And tomorrow morning I leave for Amsterdam. ** Images taken along the way this morning on our way to the Tate Britain. Boudicca Winston Churchill  David Lloyd George Oliver Cromwell  Richard 1st (The Lionheart) Another copy of the Burgers of Calais  Memorial to the slavery abolishioners in England Vauxhall bridge Images from the...