Day 17: Berlin - Utrecht

Deutsche Bahn cancelled our train at a civilised morning time, so it was up at 04:45 to get ready to leave for the rearranged 07:04 to Amersfoort. We rode through a wakening Berlin, past the Reichstag building to Berlin HbF.

All the cyclists were at the same spot to board, so we chatted to a London couple with their daughter on their way back home and young Berliner on her way to spend a Chemistry Masters Erasmus semester in Amsterdam. What a disaster when Brexit robbed a young British generation of the Erasmus programme.

As night follows day, the train got later and later - it was a strange experience being on a state of the art German ICE train going so slowly, even stopping at one point after it hit a bird.

Getting into Amersfoort 105 minutes late, we felt immediately at home in the Dutch cycle infrastructure and had a chilled 20k cycling to Utrecht. Once again we were amazed by the traffic lights of Utrecht which try and allow you to keep going where possible.

Our bikes parked in underground storage we headed for the Stayokay, a beer, food and an early night after a Utrecht stroll.Read more