The main road through the brand new Brabazon development finally opened this week with metrobus services now routed through part of the site. I went to have a look around today to see if it’s good or not. The answer… a bit of both. 1/?

Went on a wander today to see the progress on Bristol’s new cycle lane/pavement widening scheme between Temple Meads and the City Centre. Lots of work done, some sections are looking pretty finished! Plus, some Dutch kerbs - a first for Bristol? Never seen any here before myself.

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Incredible track maintenance/monitoring vehicle from 1944(!) in Plzeň this morning. Shame that 20th Century engineering works announced at short notice forced us onto a bus at this point! Still, a well-managed operation, so I can’t complain.

Exploring the gorgeous city of Regensburg today. This bridge is 12th Century, somehow! Interesting to note that the top set of stones on the parapet (plus the surface paving) have been newly replaced. Definitely wouldn’t fly in the U.K.!

A delightfully odd bit of Czech railway infrastructure - for some reason, the track has been plain-lined to take it further away from the platform. Also, the disconnected track has newish concrete sleepers while the extant track has older wooden ones!

Fascinating to see older Czech apartment blocks closer into the cities, and the clear lineage through to the later Soviet housing you see further out.

Olomouc is, it turns out, a gorgeous little city. With some crazy tram infrastructure, including a full grand union and multiple in-use tram/train flat crossings!

Presumably in a bid to out-woke the rest of Europe’s trams, Olomouc has tram tracks surrounded not by grass but by wildflowers. Also: bonus Actually Good cycle infrastructure.

Czech Tesco is such an uncanny valley… why does this exist??

Broke: putting grass around your tram tracks. Woke: surrounding your tram line in a green tunnel of shady trees.

Ahhh, this must be where the Czechs practice the ancient sport of Tram Jumping.

I love concrete… here we have the Charleroi metro, over a main road, over a railway.

I’m sure nobody on this website of all places will know why I’m here

It turns out Calatrava has done two Belgian stations (I get why this one isn’t as famous, it’s not quite as fancy)

They have bendy natural gas buses in France?? (And boulangeries, of course, but the bendy gas buses are cooler)

Got a tour of Parliament today - both chambers, select committee meetings and plenty of history. Definitely a perk of studying politics!

Exploring some relics of the Great Central Railway in Leicester today. A reminder of how short-sighted British transport policy often is… some extra capacity through here would be pretty useful these days.

Well we’ve had a good run (debatable) but I think the time of productivity is over for today

And with that, the 8 deposits me only a few minutes late back into Melton Mowbray. Just enough time to sprint to the station and catch a train 3(!) hours earlier than my estimate. Finished, in 10 hours and 8 minutes.

Very helpfully, this Centrebus 8 was pretty late arriving (for once, their unreliability is useful!) so I was able to catch it instead of waiting an hour. This means I’m making my final bus journey to complete the loop two hours earlier than expected!

From Coalville, the 16 carries me and just one other passenger towards Loughborough.

I have been dropped off somewhat insalubriously by the head office of Poundstretcher, and a busy road. Not all connections on this trip are nice ones!

By sneakily going to Leicester Forest East and not actually into Leicester, I’ve switched back onto a 153 for a short hop out to… the middle of nowhere. More on that soon.

Hinckley suits me for a small resupply at the well-placed Sainsbury’s by the bus station. Now for a packed 158 heading for Leicester (although I’ll be avoiding the city itself).

The 58 ran dangerously late and I thought my old dislike of Centrebus might be proven right again. But luckily it caught up just enough by the end for me to make my three minute connection onto the 8 to Hinckley - the first Arriva bus of the day.

This 58 is my second free bus of the day (number 4 total). This time, the driver has been briefed on Free Bus Day!

Free Bus Day going well so far - the driver of this 18 didn’t know it was free today but was happy to believe me, so we’re off on the cheap (well, free!) part of the journey.

The 19 drops me off in Desborough, home to one of the nicest Costas I’ve seen and apparently 81 miles from London. Luckily, I don’t need to get that far today - my next journey is just to Market Harborough.

This bus is a little more conventional, and is hopefully the last one I’ll have to pay for today!

I’m now in Rutland, which is of course not in Leicestershire (though only by historical technicality). Sadly, it’s not possible to do a complete circuit of Leicester without leaving the county, so I’m dipping into Rutland and Northamptonshire.

Ironically, this bus is not free and is in fact not even a £2 single. But it’s a useful link that will get me all the way to Corby, so I’m not complaining.

I’ve now made it to the beating heart of Melton’s bus network, Windsor Street. Feels a bit 28 Days Later… #LeicestershireLoop

It is currently extremely early, and I’m in Melton Mowbray. Why? Well, today is a Leicestershire Free Bus Day, and I intend to make good use of it. I’m going to be trying to do a complete circuit of the county without entering Leicester. Let’s see how it goes!