Marie and Jan on Tour

Three years

Start Wendland 25.4.2011
young and innocent

…. we strolled through a colourful world. We started Spring 2011, first year we passed Germany, Czechia, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Winter we stayed in Montenegro, in beautiful Herceg Novi.

A great time with walking in the mountains and jumping into the Mediterranean Sea. Spring 2012 we stored there our bikes by friends, in order to travel in stages back to Germany.

After reunion and hugging family and friends , we went on cycling in Autumn 2012 through Montenegro, Albania and Greece and visited Lefkada and Ithaka in Ionian Sea.
In Winter we let our bikes again in the South, in Athens, and had to go back to Germany to find out what is the cause of Maries shoulder pain.

After we learned that warmness is the best for frozen shoulder we travelled through Italy back to our bicycles and explored the southern Greek Islands Patmos, Rhodes and Crete.
This year we look back on gorgeous travel-experiences in Turkey and Bulgaria.
We are happy and enriched with thousands experiences.

Arrival in Berlin 7.4.2014
still fresh and enthusiastic

A wonderful journey is now at the end. But still we look forward on an exciting time, because we are fresh in love in Potsdam and the many lakes in the surrounding.

Our first ten days in Germany we spent wandering about in Potsdam and hinterland, looking for shared flats, social projects and working possibilities. The creative architekture and the nature with forests and a lot of waterways is dreamlike.

Now we found a very nice flat share in Caputh, a small room in a big villa, where we will live together with Heike and Ludwig.
Caputh can’t be a bad place for living, Einstein rested here from E=m*c² (until the Nazis frightend him away), moreover there is a gorgeous bathing-lake

and bicycle routes and train-connections to Potsdam (and further to Berlin).

You are warmly welcome in our new home, kisses and hugs from
MaJa not anymore on tour

Red line shows our cycling tour
Numbers shows distance to our new living place in Caputh

3 years on tour, 1 111 wonderful days

6500 cycling kilometres, top day kilometres 111, highest point 1300 m

2 punctures
many relaxing resting days
113 marvellous private hosts – thousand thanks!
such a diversity of believes:
Atheist, Catholic, Orthodox, Jehovah’s witness, Bahai, Alevit, Jewish, Sunnite, Esoteric
16 countries, 2 continents, 2 time zones, 10 valuta:
Euro – Krone – Kuna – Dinar – Marka – Lek – Forint – Lira – Denar – Lew
learned so much:        salsa-dancing,       astronomy,        history,         flute-playing,         new cooking-experiences,…
and improved our self-confidence and flexibility in new situations

a lot of languages
danke – blagordaja – faleminderit – tesekkurler – efcharisto – hvala – dêkuji -köszönöm – gracie – thank you
and wonderful letters:
Ð Ж ζ φ Ω

160 books – the best of:

Jack London – Jeannette Walls – Isaac Singer – Wolfgang Borchert – Alekxandar Tišma – Feng Jicai – Wladimir Makanin – Philip Roth – André Heller – Garcia Márquez – Ivo Andric – Uwe Tellkamp – Marina Lewycka – Turgenjew – Scholem Alejchem – Günther Buschmann – Peter Pan – Marcel Bergmann – Kenneth Grahame – Tatjana Tolstaja – Jurek Becker – André Heller – Chaim Noll – Téa Obreht – Hilsenrath – Paul Auster – Khaled Hosseini – Thomas Mann – Astrid Lindgren – Zlata Filipovic – Ernst Arndt – Anne Weber – Peter Härtling – Christa Wolf – Siri Hustvedt – Haruki Murakami – Abraham Jehoschua – Waltraud Ahrndt – Leib Perez – Natalie Berghahn – Wilhelm Raabe – Homer Odyssey – Theodor Storm – Honore de Balzac – Puschkin – Gogol – Dostojewski – Korolenko – Tschechov – Maxim Gorki – Leonid Andreyev

20 times Borax and Torix performed against climate-change:
‘don’t forget you decide’

1500 pages diary – 8 000 photos
only a few unkind encounters (if you don’t want to count all the cars which are a really horror for us cyclist)
but thousand friendly people
50% sleepy or shy, 50 % aggressive dogs

lost a few things, nothing stolen

Seven times visited by friends or families during our tour and many hold contact with uncountable of emails, letters and even parcels – thanks a lot!

A great team and a unmeasurable love!

Shoes after a long journey