End.

I should probably put a capper on the whole thing, and point out that with sore feet and a heavy heart I made it back to London without any hassles.  It's true what they say about the grass being greener on the other side.  Some nights sleeping in my tent I wished for nothing more than be wrapped up in a warm duvet at home, but now I missed the wandering and having everything I need to live on my back.

Still a great trip.  And I'm already planning the next one a little bit.

Day 14 - Amsterdam

Had a great day yesterday. Managed to find my way to Anne Frank's house without too much trouble, and then after an hours queue I was in!

It was definitely worth the wait. I've been a big admirer of Anne Frank ever since I read her diary as a teenager, and getting to see the space she lived in while she wrote it was fascinating. Obviously it was also extremely moving and depressing at times, but the house/museum is laid out in such a way that you're made to consider wider issues of social injustice and the concept of freedom as well as the personality and story of Anne Frank. V much recommended if you're ever in Amsterdam.

After a quick falafel lunch I hopped on a ferry and crossed the waters to The Eye film institute where I went to a Stanley Kubrick exhibition. A bit of a change of pace to go from the emotional to the analytical, but a nice one. Was an excellent exhibition, with lots and lots of great props and costumes from his entire body of work. They had a big nuclear bomb prop from Dt Strangelove, but to my dismay it had a sign next to it saying "Please Do Not Ride The Bomb". Awww.

It turned out that with an exhibition ticket you could get a discount on a film. So I went out to one of Ansterdam's fine coffee shops for a quick bit of relaxation, then I went to see 2001 on a huge screen with quadraphonic sound.

It was great! Definitely the best way to see the film. It was all a bit overwhelming at times.

Right, I've got a train to Brussels to catch at 14:13, then soon after a Eurostar to St Pancras. See you later, London!

Day 12 - Amsterdam

Woop! Finally made it. I'm staying in a campsite about 3km from the city centre in a v small town called Zonderdorp. It's very strange, 30 minutes on the bus from a bustling city centre and I'm out in some tranquil rural paradise with cows and goats and whatnot.

The campsite itself is some kind of alternative commune. There's yurts and tepees, and many interesting and, to be frank, stoned people about. It's a bit like being at Glastonbury without the music.

I've made friends with these two old Russian guys called Yuri and Alex. I met them when they were playing chess and drinking vodka. We all had a drink and a smoke together and collectively put the boot into Yeltsin (and at one point Brezhnev, but I was a bit out of my depth there). So it's all very pleasant stuff, nice that the last place I camp is probably the friendliest.

I had a good look around Amsterdam yesterday. It is, obviously, lovely. Im sure I must be the last person I know never to have been before. I sat around drinking Amstell, eating falafel and listening to jazz music.

Today I'm heading for Anne Frank's house, and then afterwards to cheer myself up there's an exhibition of Stanley Kubrick props on.

Day 11 - Utrecht

I've had a wonderful day in Utrecht today - made all the nicer by the fact that I had nice people to spend the day with rather than wandering around aimlessly on my own.

I woke up in a warm and soft fold out bed in a flat on the excellently named street Johncoltranestraat (next to DukeEllingtonstraat and off the Jazzsingel).  Much nicer than waking up in a field in some sweaty and increasingly unhygienic smelling tent.

I spent the morning drinking coffee and catching up with all the internet stuff I'd missed in the 11 days I've been away.

Later I borrowed one of my friend's bikes and cycled into Utrecht with them.  Cycling around the Netherlands compared to London is like night and day.  No-one screamed insults at me, no-one tried to crush me with a van - I didn't even get randomly assaulted once!  The omnipresent and wide-ranging network of cycle lanes means you can get around both easily and with pleasure.

When we got into the city centre I was surprised - Utrecht is absolutely beautiful.  We had a look around a half destroyed cathedral (a C18 hurricane this time rather than Nazis).  Afterwards we headed to a coffee shop and spent a relaxing hour listening to jazz in the basement.  Then we headed out to a park, sat in the sun, fed ducks and drank beer.

Cycling home in the sunset was perfectly lovely - and then we watched some Black Books and In Bruges.  Today I'm hitting the road again pretty soon and heading to Amsterdam.  Can't wait.

Day 11 - Short Picture post.

A few pictures so far of my trip:

An average campsite and my gear.

Nazi machine gun bunkers slowly sinking into the sand at Dunkirk

A nice old building in Bruges.

The view from the top of the clock tower in Bruges.

One of the canals in Bruges

More canals in Bruges

Me, on the Breskens to Vlissengen Ferry

View out over a lake near Westkappel

Typical walking view as I head down the beach to my next destination.

Sherman Tank at Westkappel - I later ate my lunch sitting on this.

Day 10 - Hellevoetsluis to Rotterdam

Am posting this just outside the modern art museum in the centre of the city.

Hellevoetsluis proved to be a total bust as a town/city. It doesn't seem to even have a centre as such, just a slightly run down shopping centre. After two hours walking around trying to find something interesting I gave up and returned to the campsite. It was a weird place, kind of reminded me of a Midwestern US town, all long straight roads, and low kind of industrial buildings. At least the campsite was pleasant and grassy though.

I'm surprised at how modern Rotterdam is - I was expecting the usual spattering of old buildings in the centre, but it turns out that nearly everything was flattened in fifteen minutes on 14th May 1940 by the Luftwaffe. Yeah, cheers Hitler.

What remains (sort of) is a nice church (St Lawrence's) which I spent an hour wandering around reading about the history of the place. It looked real nice prior to WW2.

Now the place is filled with glittering, glass skyscraper and more upmarket fashiony shops than you can shake a stick at. If you're in the market for a pair of trainers or a trendy t-shirt then this is the place to be. I'm not, so it feels a little corporate and soulless.

Later I'm hopping on a train to Utrecht to meet up with a friend. After nearly two weeks of solitude on the road it'll be pretty weird to see someone that I know.

Day 9 - Renesse to Hellevoetsluis

A baking hot day here. The kind of day where you get little shimmering mirages over to the top of roads. I walked between a long land bridge between two Dutch islands and it was like walking through a vast concrete desert. I thought my shoes were going to stick to the ground. Kept myself watered though, and I put loads of suntan lotion on so I should be fine.

Am now in Hellevoetsluis, where I'm camped at a very nice campsite just outside of town. Am heading in now to find something for dinner and maybe a pint of beer by a canal.

Tomorrow I'm heading to Rotterdam, and after that I'm going to Utrecht to stay at a friend's house. I can't wait, life in a tent has its positive points, but I miss beds and pillows and stuff.

Day 8 - Westkappel to Renesse

Things worked out pretty good last night. There were two 17 year old dutch girls, Carmen and Janine, camping next to me, so we got talking and ended up going out to swim in the surf as the sun set. Afterwards we had vodka and orange juice on the beach.

Got to sleep pretty easy, but it rained a hell of a lot over the night and early morning so I had to take my tent down in the drizzle. Not much fun. After that I walked up the coast, and hopped on a bus to take me over the bridge to the next island. Wasn't much fun walking today, the clouds were grey and omnipresent, so I decided to stop in this place.

A kindly old dutch woman gave me permission to camp in her garden. I'm going to assume she gave permission anyway, her English wasn't so great. I'm currently in the town square having a look around. Seems nice enough, although my feet are very, very sore, which is distracting.

Day 7 - Vlissengen to Westkappel

It's been a long and hard few days on my feet. After Bruges I walked along the beach out of Breslane and up the coast to Blankenberg. Unfortunately, when I got there I discovered that Zeebrugge docks was in the way, so I walked through it, taking a bit of an industrial detour, eventually making it to Knokke, where I stayed the night.

Not much to write home about in Knokke, I slept behind a petrol station, and the cars kept me up a bit, but at least I could buy some hot coffee in the morning.

The next day I'm ashamed to say I hopped on a bus over the Dutch border. In mitigation it was drizzling, and the coastal route appears to take me through a marsh. I hopped off the bus ASAP though, and began walking through the beautiful Dutch countryside. Looking for a place to camp I tried a few places, but they were all ridiculously expensive (37€ for a place to put a tent up?!). I walked into Breskens to try and find a campsite there, but managed to get directed to a caravan sales park, which looked exactly like a campsite from a distance. Seething with tiredness I decided "sod Breskens", and got the ferry to Vlissengen.

Vlissengen was absolutely lovely. The campsite was nice and cheap, the sun was shining, there was a cooling breeze, and the coffee shops were doing a roaring trade. Much pacified I went to bed.

This morning I got up and continued trekking down the coast, eventually stopping in Westkappel. I'm camping in what essentially is some old lady's garden, but to her credit she has excellent wifi coverage. Westkappel is pretty cool - it was one of the first places stormed by the allies in 1944 so there's ww2 stuff rusting everywhere. I had lunch sitting on top of a Sherman tank.

Tomorrow I'm going to head north, and see if pedestrians can get over the huge bridge to the north of me...

Day 4 - Bruges

Am writing this sitting next to the bell tower in the centre of Bruges. Wow, this city is amazing. There are so many medieval buildings preserved intact that almost everywhere has some interesting piece of architecture. It's a lovely sunny day at the moment, and after I've had some lunch I'll head to the park and do a bit of reading, or maybe check out one of the art galleries if it isn't overly pricey.

Still staying at Camp Astrid at the moment, but will continue to wind my way up the coast tomorrow morning. I'll see if I can make it to somewhere near Knokke, or maybe Zeebrugge.

Am a bit tired, sore and bugbitten, but in pretty good spirits still. I am however getting a bit tired of sleeping in a tent. Can't wait to spend my first night in a bed.

Day 3 - Dunkirk - Oostende

Hello again to everyone, I'm writing this from an internet cafe in Oostende, Belgium.  Also I'm typing this on a damn azerty keyboard, so if there's some typos that's why.

Things are going very well on the trip so far, although my legs and feet are horribly achy, and with some blisters.  I'm quite glad to be out of France to be honest, the northeast of the country is a bit of a dump - Nazi graffiti everywhere and loads of campaign pictures of Marine Le Pen.  I guess its probably something to do with all the people trying to sneak through the ports.  Anyway, it's a pretty depressing environment.  Dunkirk in particular was very bleak, and mysteriously the streets seemed to be empty the whole time I was there.  

Fortunately the campsite was nice, and I had a very nice time watching the sun set over Dunkirk bay.

This morning I got up early and set off down the coast - walking qlong the hard sands for about 15 miles or so until I was in Belgium.  The beach was great - big old concrete machine gun bunkers poking out of the ground, quite post apocalyptic. Belgium is much nicer thankfully, everyone's polite, speqks English and is very helpful.  Also, after the blitzed out postwar qrchitecture of Dunkirk, Oostende is lovely - lots of old buildings.  I'm camped just outside the town, in a place called Camping Astrid.

After I got there this afternoon, I took a dip in the sea, very refreshing.  Now I'm planning the next few days - I think off to Bruges tomorrow, stay there for 2 nights and move on.  More updates to come, when I find a keyboard that has its As and Zs etc in the right places.

Day 1 - Calais to Gravellines

Apologies for the brevity of this message, but I'm writing on an iPad in a tourist office and can't type very fast.  I'll edit this once I find a place with a proper keyboard.

So far everything is going fine, although I've learnt that while it's easy to draw a line between two places on a map, it's a different thing having to walk between the two - especially with a heavy backpack on. But, after some mild difficulty, and some slightly frustrating inadvertent detours I made it to a campsite "Camping des Dunes" last night where I slept pretty well.  Also it rained and my tent held up very well, which is good to know.

Right now I've made it to Dunkirk, and am writing this in the tourism office.  I've set up camp in "la Licorne" near the beach.  Dunkirk is alright, alTthough all the older buildings are still covered in shrapnel and bullet damage from WW2.  Might head to the Durkirk Evacuation Museum this afternoon for the full story.

Tomorrow I'll head to Belgium, to Oostende I think, where fingers crossed they will have a proper Internet cafe with a real keyboard.  After that, to

Bruges, which I'm looking forward to.

Right, I'm off to find some lunch, bye!