Day 2 - Singapore to Mol

Written by Stephen Hall with Brett Schnitzerling & Glenn Harris

Some sweet talking and great persuasion on Glenn's behalf helped us scrap onto the plane with 10kg + excess hand luggage. We were all zonked and passed out very quickly not noticing the two hour delay on the tarmac due to a couple of sick passengers. The flight went surprisingly quick as we all ate our weight in food and slept the remainder of the time. Our arrival in Amsterdam was a great experience for Brett and myself having never visited Europe before. We flew through customs and both bike boxes sat waiting for us next to the carousel. The train trip through Netherlands went by quickly also although we didn't notice we'd taken a seat in the first class section. Glenn's sweet talking was less successful with the unhappily married train lady and we had to dish out another 36 euro.

We continued through to Antwerp Central before we got off to swap trains. The station was very old fashioned and beautiful but we didn't have much time to enjoy it as we boarded the train to Mol shortly after. An hour later we arrived at the door step of our new home for the next 3+ weeks in the small town of Dessel. We settled in and went food shopping on the brink of starvation.

The first ride through the streets of Dessel proved chaotic each time we forgot to ride on the right hand side but we thoroughly enjoyed it and couldn't wipe the smiles off our faces. Glenn punctured but was adamant on reaching his local bike shop 'Van Iykes' before closing so instead rode the rim at 45kmph for 15km weaving through traffic. We met the bike shop locals and stocked up on ridiculously cheap tubes (1.30 euros) then continued our ride shaking the cobwebs out. The girls were beautiful and as was the scenery and everyone was happy to see us out on the road; a nice change of pace from the horns and middle fingers of West Australians.

A restaurant named 'Bella Vue' in Mol cooked a great steak and everyone was spun out with the price of beer when we hit the town later that day. Glenn introduced us to a couple of his friends at a nearby pub where we had a drink or two before heading home to call it a night.