"I'm sorry, but the City Night Line doesn't stop in Utrecht Central Station tonight. You need to get to Arnhem quickly!"
"Say what?!?"

It sounded so much more convenient: an overnight train to Vienna, Austria and no hassle with packing our bicycles safely for a flight. But our short bicycle adventure near the Alps starts with quite some stress...

"So, what's in the Achterhoek?"
"I don't know, I've never been there. Maybe we should check it out."
"Sure, why not?"

A two hour drive later we find ourselves in Aalten, a village in the East of the Netherlands. We park the van and ride to a local farmers campsite, where we put up the tent and have ourselves a snack.

A couple of weeks ago I gave an inspiring talk at Bike4travel about long distance cycling adventures. Topics concerned preparation and the trip itself. At some point during my talk someone asked me: "what was the most difficult part of your whole 27 month trip?" I didn't have to think long...

It has been a little more than six months since we rode into our hometown, so what have we been up to? Well, in a nutshell: meeting friends and family, finding jobs, looking for a home and giving interviews to local newspapers and bicycle touring magazines.