Day 84 (23/8) - Manchester

It was Anne-Marie's idea to leave London and spend a day in Manchester before heading off to Creamfields, so it was her itinerary today. We headed into the Northern Quarter, then started with coffee and breakfast at a tea house, as you do, probably the least manly espresso in the world. Followed by a visit to the Manchester Craft and Design Center, lots of nice jewelry, paintings and paper craft. But what really caught Reuben's imagination was a collection of stuffed toys, stuffed toys with terrible injuries, spilled guts, gouged eyes, they were awesome, and we met the artist. 

After checking out some other funky shops we trained it to Warrington to escape the rain. Google cycle navigated us to our hotel, the movies to see Elysium, dinner and home in the dark without a hitch.

An espresso and cappuccino

Anne-Marie enjoys it

Absolutely fantastic stuffed toys by an amazing artist Harriet Godden 

More of her gruesome creations

Day 81 (20/8) - Street art and under-dressed in London

Reuben had organised a street art tour of London, his interest piqued by the Space Invader artwork he had observed during the cycle tour of Paris. Dave of Shoreditch street art tours was a wealth of knowledge on the local street art scene and has been documenting it for years. His three hour tour ended up being four and a half hours stuffed full of a parade of some of the most famous and impressive street art in the world. Anne-Marie was a little overwhelmed by the end but Reuben loved it all.

After the tour it was seven thirty and we were hungry. Dressed in thongs shorts and daggy t-shirts we went looking for somewhere to eat. A nice restaurant caught our eye. Reuben nipped in to see if they had a table free which they did. Out to lock up the bikes and we where happily located at a table in what turned out to be Galvin La Chapelle a Michelin stared restaurant by renown chef brothers Chris and Jeff Galvin. Seven sumptuous dishes and matching wines later and we stumbled out to unlock the bikes. Reuben joking with a chauffeur waiting with his limousine outside that whomever he was waiting for should just cycle home after his meal.

Cycling home we stopped for a couple of shots on some famous bridge in London ;-)

Now Kiss

This one was beautifully bright.

This one is appreciated by the large local Muslim community

This one is just amazing

Octophant!

An enormous hedgehog looks awesome coming round the corner

Reverse graffiti, wash the dirt off to create art

Some impressive sculptures

And can work

A little can pointillism 

Some smut by a little Japanese woman

Some of the most impressive art was little bronze sculptures with environmental messages hidden subtly around the place

Day 79 (18/8) - Pop art and Piss

Having train tickets on the Eurostar already booked for tomorrow, we decided to make the most of the day we had left in Paris. Too scared to leave Anne-Marie's bike locked up anywhere we spent the morning wandering through the urine soaked (seriously the whole city reeks of it) streets of this over-rated city looking for a replacement bicycle and after abandoning hope, the Afternoon at the Centre Georges Pompidou their modern art museum. It was impressive. A fantastic selection of international Modern art and two great exhibitions by Roy Lichtenstein and Simon Hantai, neither of them Parisians!

Two French freaks disappointed the Cheese shop was closed. MOOOO

One of Roy Lichtenstein's Famous pieces.

We didn't know Simon Hantai's work, but now have a huge appreciation for it.

:D

Paris skyline from the Pompidou escalator

The tower again

Day 76 (15/8) - In Bruges and not one coked up racist Dwarf

After riding around and exploring Bruges we did some lame tourist activities, a fry museum and a chocolate museum, a bit of a waste of time really. We visited a Picasso exhibition and then meandered through the streets with the other thousand tourists looking at the hundreds of chocolate, lace, beer and nic-nac shops. Bruges is a lovely place but at this time of year it is completely overrun with tourists. For dinner we delved into the world of Michelin hats again, enjoying another degustation menu with matching wines at a one star Michelin restaurant, very comparable to many of the good restaurants in Melbourne. Riding back to our hotel we saw swans on the canal in the moonlight, just like in the movie "in Bruges"; unlike the black swans of Melbourne's Albert Park lake they weren't trying to attack us!

Fools

Reuben uses a convenient convenience, very space age

A fuzzy snap of the canals at sunset, stay still when I'm taking your photo swan

One of Picaso's bulls

Day 75 (14/8) - To Bruges and too many hats

We said goodbye to the seaside town of Vlissingen and caught a ferry across the river to the mainland. With about 30 other cyclists on board the ferry, we were impressed. We decided to forget Hollands junction riding system, again, and follow Google's more direct bicycling navigation system. Again riding with a strong head wind we passed through pretty towns and farmland as we made our way to the bottom of Holland and into Belgium. (Tip for future cycling in the Netherlands, ride from bottom to top, the prevailing winds are generally going that way).

The view did not really change but we sadly noticed a reduction in fellow cyclists, the quality of bicycle paths, signage and tolerance of cars to cyclists. We made it to Bruges just after lunch, explored the town on bike and climbed the Belfry Tower (the cool one from the movie). Before it closed we spent an hour in the Dali museum, Reuben's appreciation for the ridiculous and absurd is tickled nicely by Dali's style.

As Bruges is full of Michelin hat restaurants we decided to attend our first and probably last three hat restaurant. We enjoyed a degustation menu with matching wines, truly amazing, lots of unique food, yummy flavors and interesting ingredients, and each of the 8 dishes brought out by three staff. The only problem is we might have to eat baked beans for the next few months to pay for it.. But It was a fantastic to experience gastronomy and service at such a level.

Windmills in Holland

On the ferry

Into Belgium

The wrong focal length, the buildings behind Anne-Marie was pretty impressive

Deceptively few tourists in these shots

More pretty canals, but after Venice, Strasbourg and Amsterdam we are not so impressed.

Particularly inspired by Dali's sculpture

Day 72 (11/8) - Coffee, Beer and the Old Masters in Amsterdam

For a taste of home headed to Little Collins a very popular Cafe founded by some ex-melbournites trying to bring some of Melbourne's Cafe culture to Amsterdam. Best breakfast in Europe.

Next to the Heineken experience, an impressive big budget affair with a good balance of beer history, beer drinking and beer pulling.  Reuben came away suitably soused and Anne-Marie with a new appreciation of the liquid gold.

Finished of a lovely day checking out some Rembrandts, Monets, and Van Gohs for good measure.

Anne-Marie is brainwashed by a Heineken mind-washing video

Reuben admires the stills in the old Heineken brewery

An animated wall of green bottles, more than 99 (but less than 9000). It was quite impressive.

Concentrate, you only get one shot at this (actually 3 if you stuff them up enough)

Anne-Marie, like a professional

Captain Pants certified and all

Reuben's likes a little Van Goh, he always has

Outside the Rijksmuseum all the stoned locals enjoying the sun (I'm sure they aren't all high)