Back home

We are back home. We arrived to Geneva on the 21st of June, after one year and one day travelling by recumbent bicycles.

We ended our trip with a little extra tour up the Jura mountains and camping on top of a hill with a view of Geneva, the lake and the Alps.

Time is one of our greatest luxuries and also the greatest gift you can give to others. We’ve had the luxury of having a lot of time for ourselves during the past year – cycling, camping, discovering, just being. But we also took breaks from cycling and spent time with our families and friends.

Has this trip changed anything? We have certainly not become different people than we were before. But the trip has reinforced our attitudes towards life. We don’t need much stuff to live happily. Maybe we become less materialistic with every trip. We more and more want to save our money to be able to work less and spend more time doing what we really like. This trip has reinforced our awareness that we are in control of what we do with our time. Instead of saying “I would like to do this and this and that but I don’t have time for it” we should say “I CHOOSE not to take time for it”, because that’s what it is in reality. Instead of saying “I don’t have time to see this friend”, say “I choose not to have time to see this friend”. It makes a big difference, doesn’t it?

We’ve been back for over a week now. We’ve been getting our things back into our apartment, seeing friends and family, sorting out stuff. Riding our “normal” bikes again. Experiencing how painful my Brooks saddle feels after a year on a recumbent. It’s nice not to have insect bites all the time. Trying to come to terms with the fact that this trip is over.

Imagining the next trip! With every trip, leaving becomes easier. There is less fear, more desire to see the world out there.

This morning I woke up early hearing the birds sing outside. At that moment I missed sleeping in a tent. The last birds singing around sunset, followed by the chirping of crickets. Later on, the intense silence of the night, only interrupted by the occasional owl howling. And then, all the birds start singing almost at the same time just before sunrise.

I guess we’ll have to go out and camp from time to time!

Today is Miguel’s first day back at work. I will spend the next month or so updating this blog (we have a long list of blog posts yet to write), sorting through over 7000 photos, gathering ideas for a presentation of our trip. So, keep an eye on this blog, there are still lots of updates to come!

And yeah, we already got our bikes out again. Not to clean them (which we should do), but to cycle up a nice steep road. Feel the legs, smell the wet grass, see some views, be happy that we’re in such great physical condition. And last but not least, eat fondue at the top!