Hello all! Today we made it into London. An easy feat really since we just took a train into London. We decided to give ourselves a rest day of sorts, and since we had already decided to take a train the final way into London, we just went to the closest train station. All in all we biked maybe a total of 7 miles today. Let me also say that I am writing this aboard the Caledonian Sleeper train from London to Inverness, which does mean only cellular wifi and slow cellular wifi. As such I will not be able to have any pictures in this post at the time of first posting. I will try to update I as soon as I get the chance to, but that may not be until late tomorrow.
The ride to the train station in Sittingbourne was very straightforward, nothing remarkable really. Getting on the train was also straight forward. Riding on the train was a bit more interesting, because much like the French there is nowhere specific for you to put your bikes, so we just had them in the entry way. I do find it interesting that the trains in Europe are not more bike friendly (meaning that they do not have slots or spaces for the bikes specifically), but I suppose they just figure whoever a bike fits is good enough.
After arriving in London, we made our way to the train station we were departing from that night. There we got our tickets, stored our bags, and Locke up our bikes. Realizing then it was around 2:00, we decided we should get some lunch and right nearby was a Nando's. We felt obligated to try it out, we were not particularly excited but it felt like something we had to do. For those of you who do not know, Nando's is often likened to a Chick-fil-a... Let me tell you it is nothing like that. Nando's is much slower pace and tastes much better. Truth be told I thought it was actually really good. I had a grilled chicken wrap and it was great. After trying it, I can understand why so many people seem to love Nando's so much.
After getting filled up started to wander the city, since our train did not leave until 9 that night. Through our wandering we wound up seeing some pretty major landmarks. We say the West End area, the London Eye, Waterloo Bridge, Big Ben, the House of Commons, Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, and Piccadilly Circus. It is always fun to stumble upon large landmarks when you are just aimlessly wandering around, and it will be nice when we are back in London to really see it all.
After wandering around we made it back to the station around 7:00, since we had to drop off the bike with a courier at 7:30. Well we did drop of the bikes, but to say it was with a courier is a bit of a stretch. We essentially just put the bikes into the back of an unmarked van driven by a man claiming to be with the railway. The man was wearing high vis and he had a Scottish accent so how bad can it be. Oh and the best part was that this loading was all done in a small alley a street off of the train station... It was rather sketchy. Anyway we got that done and then ate some dinner (nothing noteworthy so I won't mention it) and eventually boarded our train. We have a small little two person berth with two beds. It is tight but not too bad. I barely fit into the bed lengthwise but I do fit, so I can manage.
Anyway that is all I have for today. It was a good day, hardly any riding and tomorrow we will wake up in Inverness and start real biking again. So for now I will leave you all. Best wishes and until next time.
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