Monday 19th August

Kommen sie bitte, und listen to Kraftwerk. I have finally reached Germany! Im sat in a truck stop diner, the man to right of me has a genuine mullet, handlebar tash, white vest, cowboy boots and is stalking a fruit machine. The chap to the left is pretending not to stare at me. And they're playing Enya. Welcome to the 80s and welcome to Germany. 

I've made it as far as Prum today, near the Luxembourg border. Really went deep into the locker, and did a lot of cursing and grunting throughout the day. Its fine as nobody can hear me. It's suddenly gotten quite a bit hillier and now I can see what those training rides up and down Winter Hill did for me. Turns out, not a lot.

Today started well, stayed in a hostel in Liege last night, made light work of their breakfast buffet as usual. Le monsieur next to me in the queue gave a typical Gallic puff of the lips when he saw the mountain of food I had on my plate. I assured him this was because I'm cycling. I should probable starting wearing my helmet to breakfast just to be clear.

I also had the pleasure last night of meeting Nathanial from Massachusetts. He, like me is 27, 6'6, doesnt fit in the bunk beds and solo cycling round Europe. Except he is coming to the end of his 3 month trip and I'm only just beginning mine. He seemed pretty atheltic and said he'd lost about 7kgs since the start. I must admit I noticed something resembling an abdominal muscle this morning. Not quite a 6 pack, more the single ones fallen out of the multipack on the reduced shelf. But we're getting there. My legs however are coming along nicely. In a fetishistic way that only cyclists know, Ive enjoyed observing my thighs grow..by the time I'm finished they'll be great monoliths hewn from alabaster and ill never wear trousers again.

So after leaving Liege I headed south on the main roads towards Verviers, through the route des sources and once I reached the summit at 700m it plateaued through a beautiful natural park of Alpine forests, dissected by long straight roads. It was apparently a tourist hotspot but I saw no cars and nothing to do. Just trees and signs saying keep off the land. 

And at last, a German sign. I'd made it out of Belgium. I congratulated myself on another milestone ticked off and stopped in a town called Bullingen where they were holding a village fete. I naturally wandered along in my Lycra and poked my head around. There were smiling old folk dancing the waltz, a German Rick Wakeman on a keyboard singing, a beer tent and some lads playing cut the head off of a dead goose with a sword whilst blindfolded. Apparently a local tradition...I'm starting to feel very Louix Theroux wandering into weird isolated communities. 

I asked the woman in the beer tent where the nearest big town was as my map had run out a long while back. She told me its over the German border... I thought I was already in Germany! Turns out I was in the little known part of Belgium with only 60,000 people all speaking German and i still had another 30km to go. Sweet Lord!

So ate some chips und sauce and pedalled off again. Finally arriving here into the welcoming arms of this trucker's tavern. Rattled off another 80+ miles again today so on course and feeling fresh. Tenting tonight again, cannae wait!

Tshcuss