Brussels- lost train ticket- Frankfurt, cold, time to go home I think

My travels have come to an end. I had intended to stop over in the US and bike my way from San Francisco to LA but no. Firstly, my account balance said Na, not really going to happen; then secondly, joyful US policy: because my NL passport was issued in NZ while I'm not a NZ citizen, it means that I need a visa- and a 2 week waiting time in the Netherlands didn't look all to good. I was considering to just take a punt and just go but then the thought of being sent and then tortured in Guantanamo Bay or Abu Ghraib didn't look too desirable either. So now I've got some long flight just ahead of me, leaving Frankfurt early in the morning :-)))

So anyway, back to around a week ago. I left the Netherlands for the zillionth time- but actually I'd left it the day before also during our bike ride. So it was back to Belgiun business- this time in the form of biking to Brussels from Maastricht. Apart from my chain breaking again (also the zillionth time) just out of Maastricht, my gears were slipping every 5th pedal- no exaggeration, the cold and the odd bit of rain, it was a pleasant journey. About 100ks, but every 20ks there was a biggish town, which made the journey seem much shorter. It was a Sunday too so all was nice and quite- but on the down side, no frits for sale- all I could find were these odd-looking bread vending machines.

So that was the last of my riding. I stopped off in Leuven for a half hour or so; I was planning to visit a friend Francis there, but he was in Paris that weekend (either that or he was just saying that). It was a nice enough place though but all its frit joints were shut. Grrrr. But 20ks later I was in Brussels and found my way (with a degree of difficulty of course) to a friend Sofie's place. In Brussels, we went out quite a bit and I prepared myself for an interview concerning my long-lost thesis topic. But I remembered about it after all those months and conducted a great interview with a Swedish commissioner.

I'd organised to take a train to Frankfurt for my flight out- and also to catch up with another friend living there. So the next day I biked to the station no problem, found the train- no problem and headed towards Germany. I had to take a slower indirect route because of my bike and had to change four times. That was annoying enough and then at one change (in Aachen), I had to rush to the next stop. Then on board trying to find my ticket proved problematic. No ticket- must have dropped it during the rush. Well luckily no conductor was on board. Then in Koln I bought a new ticket (costing an arm and a leg) and in the process missed the fastish connection and had to take some slow slow slow regional train that stopped where ever possible. I got to Frankfurt after midnight following the 9 hour ordeal. But my friend Jan luckily let me in to his open all hours Frankfurt home.

I didn't have all that much time in the city, and had been here earlier. I also had to spend quite a bit of time organising stuff for my flight home. The main thing was that I needed a bike box to get in on board. I found one suitable enough in some shop but it meant that I had to ride back with in the cold strong wind with it- it was a pretty awkward thing, longer than the actual bike and was blowing all over the show but we got there in the end.

So that's it from me: no more blog; no more travel; no more money; just a tent and a bike and a thesis to write.

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