Epilogue

Now, after almost 7,000 kilometers of cycling, I sit in my chair in the small monastery room and look out of the window again. Once again, one of our trips is coming to an end. And what a journey it was. The very start at the fishing hut took us into another world. The invitation from Bebe the hotel owner and his fabulous hospitality still makes our hearts beat with joy. Then the first hills, the ever-increasing heat, the night with poor farmers, reaching the Black Sea, the many horse-drawn carts that took us back to a long-forgotten time, the unpleasant encounters with the Sinti and Romas, the beautiful Danube Delta with its colorful bird life, the first contact with a nunnery in Romania and then the lovely Mama Maria who massaged Tanja from top to bottom. The experiences are downright overwhelming. I like to think back to the last evening on the Danube. To the beautiful sunsets on the river of rivers that we followed for so long.

I think of our initial fear of Moldova and how it filled our hearts with love with its charming people. So much love that it would soon overflow. The legendary hospitality of an entire people that can hardly be described in words. I think of all the old, soon-to-be-mature cars, our accommodation, Luda and her slow daughter Katja, who never missed a minute of complaining about the heat. I think of the never-ending hilly landscape, Transnistria, the corrupt customs officials and the resulting stay at the Marta si Maria monastery. We will never forget the warmth of Father Andrew and his nuns and sisters. Until the end of my life I will remember how the people there welcomed us and how the princes treated us. Pure and concentrated love, so much that we soon wouldn’t have left. The nuns would have liked to make a priest out of me and a nun out of Tanja, but our mission in life is to travel. I think about how hard it was to say goodbye. To the many heartfelt hugs, the tears, the congratulations and the friendship that developed there and continues to grow in our hearts from day to day.

I will never forget my realization about death, but also the enormous traffic in Ukraine, the dirt, the burning plastic, the dangerous kilometers on the freeway, the first continuous rain, the deluxe apartments, the beginning of the headwind era and the Crimean peninsula.

And then the dreaded Russia. The largest country in the world about which there are so many negative stories. And? Which of these is true? Now, after covering 2,000 kilometers in the country, we can say that the unpleasant registrations, the fog, the extreme east wind sometimes pushed us to our mental and physical limits. But thankfully we don’t have any horror stories or nightmare tales to tell. Even the border crossing was one of the friendliest and easiest for us. Then the first night in a guestinitsa, the visit to a banya, the people who cheered us incessantly, the evening with the Uzbek guest workers, the many Russians who constantly loaded their gifts into my trailer, the days at Babushka Vala and Dedushka Jurii where we were allowed to rest and recharge our batteries. Then the former Stalingrad, the Volga, the eternal expanse. Experiences upon experiences that have made this trip so profound and valuable. They have given us a glimpse into the heart of Russia. Which made us curious. Curious to find out more about Mother Russia, to penetrate even further into its interior, to discover Siberia all the way to Lake Baikal for ourselves. We are looking forward to continuing after the winter, traveling through the endless land and gaining profound positive experiences.

We look forward to your comments!