Coming home

I spend a few days in Istanbul. Thanks to Meryem, Bilal and Mertcan I actually see a lot of the city. The night before my return flight, we spent the whole night singing along to the guitar. I eventually have to leave at 3:30 am with my bike to catch the bus to the airport. Thanks for the great time, Meryem, Bilal and Mertcan!

Upon arriving in Munich, I reassemble my bike and cycle to Ingolstadt to stay a wonderful evening and morning with Matthias and Emma. Danke für eure Gastfreundschaft, bis bald in Bonn!

My bike at this point shows heavy wear (Achter, disc got damaged on flight, the Tretlager is making noise again). I take the train back to Großostheim. Being at the farm feels mostly "just normal". I notice that hugging my grandfather, parents and sisters, the comfort of not packing bags every morning and evening and waking up where I grew up feels different - I appreciate it more. We have a barbecue and celebrate the return of Marie from her great adventure.

But I'm not home yet. Home is a bit over 200km further up north. I did Großostheim ➡️ Bonn last year in 2 days. Since then I wanted to cover the distance in one day. Now is the time!

Upon return I buy a racing bike from eBay Kleinanzeigen. I'll  participate in a Sprint Triathlon in September for which I wanted a racing bike anyway and I'll have to get used to riding it, so I decide to ride it to Bonn.

I pass the place I slept in a hammock last year at around 140 km time. My feet, hands, wrists are getting numb at times but shifting weight helps. The low riding position is more demanding for my lower back compared to my trekking bike. Besides that I'm feeling great. But 100 km to go is still a bit and at some point a "you could just hop on the train" voice appears in my head. It doesn't help that the train in the Mittelrheintal to Bonn is going every half hour and train stations are always right at the bicycle lane. At km 180 I meet another cyclist and we cycle together for 20 minutes. Distracted by our conversation, I do not pay much attention to my aches. When we part ways, I get back into a flow state that lasts until I'm standing in front of my apartment. What a tour! Astonishingly I still feel like I could just keep going endurance wise but my muscles and joints hurt a lot. I'm very glad I arrived - and proud.

This is the last post about my bike journey. I'm glad some of you liked reading my blog. Thanks also for letting me know! I ended up enjoining writing this blog mostly because of the positive feedback I got.

Thanks to my colleagues at meshcloud for taking over during my absence and thus making it possible to embark on this journey.

Thanks to Johanna for sharing my excitement even though it meant I was gone for a few months. I love you.