It started with a cycle to Edinburgh in July… and has ended with an arrival in London in early September. Via, of course, Belfast and Cardiff (and a couple of weeks back home in Yorkshire). The four capitals of the UK have been joined by a cycle touring line. It’s hardly the stuff of great adventure but I am glad that I have managed to shoe horn into the COVID summer of 2020 something that replaces the planned trip along the length of Japan. 28 days cycling through Britain may not have ticked the exotic box that Japan clearly would have done, but it was fun. And I’m celebrating with a cheap box of Dairy Milk from the Fitzrovia branch of the Co-op, just a couple of blocks from…

…the wonderful central London YHA hostel. It’s my first visit here and I wonder why. For £40 I have a room with a great view just a stone’s throw from all that London has to offer.

Today’s 28th and final cycle of the ‘Great British Cycle Tour’ from Reading to London was a familiar one. When I lived in Reading, I cycled along National Cycle Network route 4 several times. Today’s was slightly different in that I abandoned the route in Kingston as I needed to get to central London by 6pm in order to meet Stephen Fabes to record an interview with him for The Cycling Europe Podcast. More of that in a few days… But not before a short ferry trip across the Thames at Shepperton:

That was the 4th ferry trip of the Great British Cycle Tour; the shortest but perhaps the most enjoyable. It was the only one of the four journeys where I managed to have a chat with the captain…

Job done.