London to Kent (68 miles)

First ride in Europe.  I brought my bike over hoping to get in a few miles in France.  Happened to be in London working and figured may as well pull out my bike and get a ride in.  Off to see a friend in Kent.  Had mapped out the route and ready to print it when the printer in the hotel lobby had no paper.  Opted to just hit the road and use the map on my Blackberry.  (Great idea until the battery died.) 

Riding out of London was certainly the most exciting part of the ride.  Being my first time riding in London I thought it safer to keep hands on the bars instead of fiddling with a camera, so no photo here.  For the purpose of illustration; imagine the opening scene of Quicksilver with the bike courier racing through the streets of Manhattan, put that in a blender, then you'll get an idea.  After the amount of traffic, every curved road, and so on, I think the gridded out streets of NYC would be a breeze. 

Along the route to Kent I made a wrong turn and ended up on the freeway.  Oops!

When something more the size of a highway crossed overhead I unclipped and hiked up the side of the freeway to get on a safer route.  In the meantime someone had called the police to report the lost soul.  The police caught up with me on the new route.  They understood it was a simple mistake by a foreigner, politely helped me with directions and we parted ways.

Passing through Sevenoaks on my route.

Route and Elevation:

Distance: 68 miles (1-way, took the train back)
Climbs: Just a few short ones, nothing too steep.

-ML