When the Route Becomes the Destination — Start of our World Tour by Bicycle

Blog
May 6, 2026
1:51 pm

Contributors: VAEGABOND (Melli & Dani)

We’re Melli and Dani, two adventurers from Bavaria who quit our jobs, gave up our apartment, and set off to chase a dream that had been quietly brewing for years. The spark came from different directions — a shift in family life, Dani’s year abroad in India in 2013, and our shared trip through Southeast Asia in 2016. Both journeys taught us that we wanted more of this: more of the world, more of the unexpected, more of life lived at close range with the places and people around us.

So in September, we loaded up our bikes and left Bamberg. The plan: cycle through Europe, across Russia, through India and Southeast Asia, all the way to Japan — and after that, South America up to Canada. Three to five years on the road. The route will change as we go; that’s part of the point.

Why by bike? Flexibility, independence, and the kind of pace that lets you actually notice things. It also cuts costs considerably and keeps you fit — a not-unwelcome side effect when you’re doing this for years. And there’s something we hope our way of travelling communicates to anyone watching: that it’s worth slowing down, that the simple things are worth paying attention to, and that respectful curiosity towards nature and other cultures matters. That’s the spirit behind vaegabond.com.

Three Weeks In — 804 km, and Counting

Franconian hill country did not go easy on us. We dragged ourselves up one never-ending climb after another out of Bamberg, sweating through the first days before the terrain finally flattened out. From Würzburg, the pace picked up: Aschaffenburg, Frankfurt, Mainz, Koblenz — each one appearing faster than expected. In Koblenz, we stopped for a bike fitting with Ergon, getting saddles and handlebars adjusted properly so we’re not destroying our bodies over the long haul.

Then came the Netherlands — and everything changed. The fietspaden are extraordinary: wide, well-maintained, seemingly endless. Cyclists are treated as genuine road users in a way that still feels refreshingly rare. We pushed on to Amsterdam, then out to the North Sea coast at Zandvoort. Grey water, wind-whipped waves, a sharp November breeze — and us, two cyclists from landlocked Bavaria, arriving at the coast on our own legs. The feeling was indescribable. We turned onto a small path, rode a few metres into the dunes, and just stood there. Sometimes the road hands you a moment like that.

We’d been smug about the wind — or rather, the lack of it. That didn’t last. As soon as we hit the peninsulas further south and the open coast again, we got the full Dutch headwind experience: gusts up to 60 km/h pushing straight into our faces, stripping away any illusion of moving quickly. Everyone who’d warned us had been right. We pedalled harder just to avoid rolling backwards. But the landscape was worth every laboured kilometre.

Belgium, Breakdowns, and a 15% Gradient

We crossed into Belgium, visited Bruges, and made a longer stop in Ghent — partly forced upon us when Dani’s dynamo hub stopped generating power. A chunk of our electronics went uncharged for a while as we tracked down the problem. We lost a few days, but Ghent turned out to be a very pleasant place to be stranded.

From there, we left the Dutch-speaking north and rolled into the French-speaking south: forests, no headwind, a completely different feel. Then Dinant — a genuinely romantic little town where we stopped to take photos — and immediately around the next bend, the steepest hill of the trip so far. A sign read 15%. We were drenched in sweat before we were halfway up, eventually unclipped, and pushed. We had nothing left. And then came the descent, and the wind rushing past, and it was all completely worth it.

55 Days, 1,500 km, and Not Even Close to Done

Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France. We thought cycling would feel slow. Instead, the weeks have blurred past — every day a new adventure, new faces, new edges of ourselves we hadn’t met before. Right now, we’re with family in the Black Forest, rethinking our packing before heading south towards Morocco.

Are we done? Not remotely. We’ve just passed 1,500 km. Japan is still a very long way away. And yes, for those wondering — we’re not going the wrong way. We’re just not taking the direct route. 😉 The journey is the destination.

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