Working overtime is like a boiling water in a pressure cooker.

If you don't keep an eye on it, it can literally blow up in your face. If you find yourself thinking of work in this manner, you my friend, need a vacation! What better than to get on 2 wheels and hit the road? Several months ago, I purchased a plane ticket to Amsterdam and picked the cheapest date to fly and forgot about it, which happened to be a blessing in disguise because when you finally do remember it, it's as if someone made the choice for you and all you had to do was pack and go. It just so happened that the unplanned vacation became a much needed trip because work was dragging me down and I felt like quitting.

I flew out Friday evening and arrived in Amsterdam where I spent about 3 days sight seeing the usual spots. A few days in Amsterdam was more than enough for me and I quickly got sick of it. Oh, did I mention I was on this trip solo? Solo travel in Amsterdam can be great if you are there for a particular reason, but if you are there on vacation, then it isn't the best choice. Regardless I had several more days of vacationing left and I ended up renting a motorcycle at Motoport of Amsterdam and headed off on an impromptu ride to Paris.

Most trips like this should be planned out before departing,

but when you have 2 wheels, plans almost always go out the door because you are at the mercy of mother nature and time. But that's quite alright! Where's the sense of adventure if you are going to let mother nature stop you?

Immediately after I rented the bike, I realize that I don't have the proper weather specific gear for this ride because the wind was sucking all the heat out of my body. Between the short gloves, zippered areas, and a lack of tall boots, each kilometer meant more heat being sucked away from my body. I knew almost instantly that the ride was going to miserable. But I didn't care. I had 2 wheels, and I'll be damned if I just gave in. Off to Paris!

I broke the ride up into two parts,

one leg into Belgium (approximately 3 hours) and the next leg into Paris (approximately 4 hours). The first leg of the ride was a continuous mission to run from the clouds. They would momentarily disappear, revealing the blue sky and then, like a vacuum, the clouds would be sucked back into to the blue hole in the sky.

Despite the photos showing what could be a warm day, the reality was that the weather was see-sawing from dark, rain filled clouds, to a beautiful but windy blue sky. Even mother nature's looks can be deceiving. Regardless, I had no choice but to press on because kilometers don't ride themselves.

After hours of running from storm clouds,

I end up in my final destination for the day in Spa, Belgium, known for its hot springs. Unfortunately, by the time I reached the springs, it was already quite late into the day, and they were about to close. Rather than give up, I abandoned my original plan of a Spa day in Spa Belgium (how ironic!), and instead opted for a day trip to the nearby city of Liege.

In this city, I discovered what feels like the world's longest set of stairs.

It took a total of 4 minutes to walk up the stairs non stop. Definitely a great way to get into shape if you ran up the stairs everyday! The view at the top wasn't the best and immediately after I reached the top, I realized that I left my GPS mounted on my motorcycle! Unable to enjoy the view, I rush back down and miraculously, the GPS was still on my bike! Consider Liege a relatively safe city, that or I'm just one lucky SOB.

Solo travel can really bring out some great moments

Walking up those stairs really reminded me that solo travel can really bring out some great moments. You can go where you please and to tune of your own beat. You can pull over whenever you want and enjoy what's important to you.

Once I got back to the bike, I quickly realize that the cloud that I was running from was starting to catch back up. I really had no choice but to get back on the bike and haul ass back to my hotel. On the way back I grabbed some beer and pizza and rummaged around town. Not a single soul in sight! So I took some pics and retired for the day. That's all folks! Follow me on part 2 of my trip!

A selfie in front of my hotel

A selfie in front of an old public Spa

The view from my hotel window