Interlude

Brittany and Simon have taken a week off our holiday to finalise our affairs in England. We shipped 8 boxes and a bike, before later discovering we had missed an extra box worth – so we took a long trip to Park Royal (West London) to ship another box yesterday.

It took several days to clear the clutter from our apartment, but only took one day for some professional cleaners to do their thing. We used the day off to take a final trip to the Midlands to say goodbye to Simon's relatives.

Our landlord paid us back the full deposit yesterday and we closed our front door for the last time this morning. We both have mixed emotions, it was more difficult than we expected to shut the door on this chapter of our lives.

We are now back with the tandem, and after a 2-hour train ride to Portsmouth, we are now relaxing on a ferry bound for St Malo, France. It is here that we will begin the second part of our cycling adventures.

Unlike Lands End to John O'Groats, Simon's planning for this part of the trip has been haphazard/non-existent. The only maps we have for the trip are in French and German. Furthermore, we will understand the locals even less than we did in Scotland...