P&O came to fore again and bumped me to an early boat – and riding through Flanders I was struck by the sheer numbers of vivid red poppies growing as far as the eye could see which bought to my mind the the three battles of Ypres. Calling into the town of Ghent for lunch and basking in the shadows of the city’s medieval architecture I got chatting to a couple of BMW riding Dutchmen who recommended a good stopover in Amsterdam so… at the end of day one, I find myself alongside a canal having a beer near Stadhoudersnade in the setting western sunlight with a small plate of hand salted Norwegian smoke salmon for company.