Falling asleep and missing my connection to Stockholm from Bejing was definitely not part of the plan.

It's midnight on Sunday night and I've arrived at London Gatwick airport, having flown from Beijing to Stockholm then on a new ticket to London.

The moral of story is always set an alarm on the iPhone before departure time and don't eat the omelette breakfast on the plane. I was trying to sleep off the reaction, which contributed to sleeping through the boarding call whilst at the gate. Fortunately my family in 'mission control' helped me get new connecting plane and train tickets and Skype allowed me to reschedule hotel bookings for first two night.

Sleeping in airports requires a strategy to always be looking for an upgrade until I eventually got a prone, full length couch!

I have recut the daily schedule for the first week of cycling. The first two days will be the litmus test as the average is up from 109 to 138km/day until next weekend. I have a scarce seat on Sunday's ferry to Isle of Man to watch the motorcycle TT.

Off to Penzance this morning on a 6 hr train trip. The hotelier warned me that they are expecting there to be 17,000 pirates as they are going for a world record.

 

Catching the next days flight from Beijing to Stockholm. I will not miss the connection a second time.

Catching the next days flight from Beijing to Stockholm. I will not miss the connection a second time.

Sleeping in airports (Yes, there is a website). Any rest is good rest, and that purple couch is the ideal spot.

Sleeping in airports (Yes, there is a website). Any rest is good rest, and that purple couch is the ideal spot.