The night temperatures these days drop to around 5 °C. No problem, as long as I stay in a sleeping bag that is quite comfortable down to the freezing point. A good piece, which I stole from Bernde back then for my first North Cape tour. The cold, however, makes everything that isn’t in the tent soaked through by the next morning. Today I only had to wait for the sun and calmly made myself a coffee and enjoyed my jam with French bread. In the process I had to note that my petrol stove is now also falling apart. It drips on all edges and corners. Hopefully the thing doesn’t…

Traffic in front of the window was decent until after midnight, but I still didn’t catch much. In the morning the usual rhythm: pack coffee, get dressed, hit the road. As fast as possible toward the Ardennes, then cut across to Luxembourg. According to the map, this must be the famed meandering valley. And I can confirm, on the upward‑open meander scale this is absolute top‑league. If only it weren’t Sunday and the sun were giving its best. That means there was a lot going on, but still acceptable. Only the cafés were all packed to bursting. So my plan was to find a nice spot and make my own…

After 4 weeks, 3 days, and 5 hours the ring, or circle, as they nicely say, closes. It was the expected hardest day of this tour. Just home now. Freely adapted from Achim Reichel’s lyrics from Aloha heja: It was a hard crossingEight hours just grinding the railsCursed the worldSpat into the windAnd swallowed a bit of rainAloha heja … At this point no further text, the summasummarum will follow later. From now on I disappear indefinitely into the Bermuda Triangle consisting of bathtub, bed, balcony‑ia. In random order.

Despite the economic crisis I never saw an Englishman slamming coconuts together while driving down the road. And no voice told me to look for the Holy Grail, because I was already sitting on it. I have endured many thousands of kilometres of left‑hand traffic, even though there were a few moments of breath‑holding. I have experienced British weather from its, well, not‑so‑best side. And I have made my way through all the lands without ever holding a real penny in my hand. There were occasional payment‑card issues at petrol stations, but because stations are so common it never became a major problem. Above all, I met helpful and friendly…