Ramada Birmingham North Cannoc Cannock

... further south to start the journey in the light of the advancing winter - but as a man once said, "Go big, or Go home!" (I make no judgement as to whether he was a wise man). Starting in Amsterdam is more memorable and allows me to pass through three more countries (Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg) for the sake of an additional day or two on the road.<br><br>The countdown is at 15 days and 21 hours...

... managed to get all loose ends sorted and even probably did over and above what was expected - ok nothing new there either. Had a massive stack of discharges to do (over 30) and halfed that today so well on the way to getting out the door of work on Friday with it all done - its all positive thinking at present as I am all to familiar with the spanner that can be thrown in at the last minute ...

... t be bothered with the shopping crowds. Having to fight your way through the likes of Primark (hell on earth in terms for shopping and I'm a shop-a-holic so it must be bad) or on the escalators in the Bull Ring just didn't appeal today. So I saved my pennies for a rainy day - that will probably be tomorrow.<br>Ok get some sleep - with 10 days to go I need to keep the battery charged. More to follow in the next few days .......<br>

An early start from London and back in Crewe by 9.15, shortly thereafter I had the slightly surreal experience of helping someone move into my flat. Many hands made light work and we had all of the stuff moved into the flat within 30 minutes.<br><br>After a fantastic lunch I went back and removed the very last of the stuff, including the bike and the backpack; and now I am staying at Steve's ...

Finally worked out my route.<br><br>Fly to Armenia, travel through Georgia to Turkey and fly from Istanbul to Mumbai. Work my way across to Calcutta and fly to Bangkok. Through Thailand and Cambodia to Vietnam, then onto China.<br><br>I am setting off early September 2010 and aim to be in China early December, maybe.<br><br>And then I have to get back...

... br><br>Much to the amusement of some people, I have planned my entire trip by the week! Yeah, yeah, I know it is likely to change in the first week, but without preparation I might miss out on something I wanted to do, so it's good to have a skeleton plan.<br><br>Only 16 days to go and counting ... I wish I was going tomorrow, having said ...

... for many years and started Ilkeston's own museum. He's quite famous around these parts and Anthea's new name in Ilkeston is "Cyril Hargreaves' grand-daughter"<br>Whilst in Ilkeston, we made our way to the Ilkeston fair - one of the oldest street fairs in England (it's been running for 800 years!) and is also the biggest street fair in Europe. I'm not quite sure what we were expecting, but it was just full of side-show games and overpriced rides ...

Afte a lazy start to the day we headed out to go see some locals of the New Forest starting first with the donkeys then the ponies, cows, pigs, squirrels, ducks and geese - oh and manybe some sheep too! <br><br>We headed up around Frogham, over the High Corner Inn to the pub at Fritham, the Walter Tyrrel and the Rufus stone, thru Beaulieu and back up ornamental drive before heading home to have dinner at the George! Great day not too rainy and very entertaining!<br>

... I enter my local airport can sometimes be 3 hours or more. When you reach your destination it's all worth it of course (unless you make the mistake of visiting Tokyo between Christmas and New Year when it is mainly closed), but that journey time is a bit of your life you are never going to get back.<br><br>So I write about my travels overseas (or actually I do notes which I fully intend to expand into amusing articles in the near future), but rather ignore the beautiful country ...

Hi everyone, Well I've had a pretty awesome week, with the obvious highlight being my trip to LONDON! So, following the pattern of incidents that seem to have followed me around since I've arrived, the journey into London was somewhat eventful. Firstly, the coach was 30 minutes late, leaving poor little me to wait outside in -2 degree heat, with some crazy guy asking me repeatedly when the bus to Inverness was coming (I DON'T KNOW ...