Last day in la Bella Italia

The last day of September, 2024, was our longest day of the tour in time and in distance. The four of us woke up together for the last time this year in Lecce, Italy and we didn’t go to sleep for a long, long time.

We walked to our last breakfast, in a typical nice little café. A couple of modest pastries with our drinks of choice, in my case fresh squeezed succo d’arancia. Back at the apartment we packed up and rode off to the train station after 10. We took a little detour to a bike shop and were partially successful in getting bike boxes: one down, three to go. Wytze provided quite some entertainment by showing off his skill in riding and comedy by carrying the big unwieldy box to the station.

There were many trains to Bari and we had no trouble loading the bikes and our precious box. The train ride was less than two hours. It felt weird to be moving so fast – up to 160 kph, we hadn’t moved at half that speed for the last full month.

In Bari we parked by the station and Wytze and I checked out nearby bike shops. The only one we found open surprisingly had an unhelpful owner. All the rest were closed for the afternoon (common in Italy). So we rode back and switched gears: time for our last group lunch! Meanwhile Daniel had packed his bike in the box and was finally successful talking the luggage guys at the train station into keeping it for him. Lunch was modest but very tasty. It was relaxed because we could see that the other bike shops and hardware stores we wanted to visit were mostly closed until 16:30. I passed on dessert and alcohol – it’s a new life now! After lunch we had to say goodbye to Daniel. His flight to Zurich was earlier than ours and he was already set with a box. Who knows when the four of us will be riding together again, but I suspect it will happen.

We rode across to the other side of town and scored another bike box at the first store we tried. The next one was still closed but there was an appliance store with a bunch of boxes outside on the sidewalk. A guy was working on something and it took a minute to convince him but he graciously gave us two new looking giant boxes we knew we could adapt into bike boxes. Wytze and I carried them back to the bike shop where Andrew was stationed.

Then the question was how to get the boxes plus the bikes to the station and then to the airport. Should we pack the bikes? Go in two trips? Wytze is always the answer man, “I can carry them on my bike.” We stuffed the two non-bike boxes into the bike box and walked the one km to the station with them all balanced on Wytze’s bike. Crossing the tracks required two trips up and down long stair cases.

At the station we decided to try taking the airport train without boxing the bikes. It had worked so well on the Lecce to Bari train with it’s special bike transport cars. Good thing too since once we found the platform there was trouble with our box of boxes. It was way over size and first one staff person then the train manager got really mad about it. It was absolutely forbidden, no possible way. But they didn’t know what we had, a secret weapon: Wytze. He will not fail – that is just a fact they had to accept. By tearing down our one actual bike box and folding it up, we ended up with three bikes and three smaller rolls of cardboard. He somehow talked the train manager into it. There were very harsh looks and “I am doing you a very big favor” and some other things. But it worked.

Once off the train it was quite a complicated way to the actual airport. We decided to first box the bikes. I found a perfect work area and it took a little over an hour to build up the boxes, reduce them to the right size, tape them up, wrap in rope with plastic wrap, then disassemble and pack the bikes. On this whole trip I’ve been thankful to be carrying my Swiss Army knife. It has cut so many pastries, opened a ton of beers and a few bottles of wine. Today it cut so many meters of cardboard. It was new for this trip but probably needs sharpening now!

We scored a cart and then started quite an odyssey, going up and down lifts which only had room for the boxes but not the cart, for a long way. We ended up at the airport entrance, but at the wrong level then eventually found the check-in line. There was one person working who said it would open in 15 minutes. Then someone cleared their throat pointedly and we saw the 20 meter long line of people waiting to check-in ahead of us. Everyone in a surprisingly good mood, we laughed and Andrew and I immediately pushed our boxes to the back of the line. Wytze didn’t follow. Soon he comes over, “It’s ok, they all agree we can go first. I told them you are a shy American and Australian.” Wytze being Dutch, talking to a largely Dutch crowd gave us VIP treatment so we were first to check-in.

It was a relief getting rid of the bike boxes as always. Security was easy and then we headed for the bar. After beers, we still had a couple of hours as the flight was delayed a little. So we had dinner at the restaurant, unfriendly but I think late at night workers at the end of a shift just have a hard time. Our last Italian meal for a while was pasta and red wine.

Boarding was easy and soon we were flying north to Amsterdam. The seats were small and I couldn’t sleep. We landed about 1 am and had to wait a while for the boxes. There’s only one train running from the airport in the middle of the night but luckily it goes straight to our destination, Utrecht, with one stop in Amsterdam, but only once an hour. We missed the 2:03 train as expected, and ended up having a snack by the train station inside the airport at 2:30 am talking to a couple who had cycled to Spain and were just returning.

We caught the 3:03 train and were in Utrecht before 4. As we came out into the giant lobby, Wytze spied a half dozen security guards at the door and said, “Maybe we should go some distance before we put our bikes together.” So we pushed and pulled the boxes outside – mine was being pulled out of my hands by the gusty tailwind. Finally down a big staircase to a place with a little light and trash cans.

We quickly opened the boxes and assembled the bikes. I had made a terrible error though: I followed the rules (halfway) and had partially deflated one of my tires. It’s a wives tale that you have to do this – modern planes are pressurized and as long as your tires can handle ascending to 2,500m or so, you’re good. Wytze pumped up my tire but the valve core came out unscrewing my pump. Note to self: throw that pump away and get one that doesn’t require unscrewing. All the air came out and the tubeless seal was lost so I had an un-inflatable tire at 4 am with heavy rain predicted. I figured I would have the very messy job of putting in a tube but Wytze said there might be a pump in the bike parking lot. These bike parking lots are amazing. The one at Utrecht Central by chance is the biggest one in all of Europe with space for 12,500 bikes. And the pump it has is actually a compressor – it filled and sealed my tubeless tire in seconds and we were rolling!

It’s about 10 km to Wytze’s house and it was quite nice riding on the super high quality Dutch bike paths with almost no one around. It was lightly drizzling but the temperature was a nice 14°C. We pulled in just before 5 am and that was a great moment! We had a snack of homemade apple pie from homegrown apples, then I had a quick shower and went to bed.

The trip isn’t quite over as I don’t go home for five days. Andrew has a little more time and will go to Germany to visit a friend. I think back on the trip, I look at the photos and I have to smile. It was so fun with these amazing guys. My goal for us of riding all the way with no accidents was accomplished. My record of no flat tires on these trips continues. That’s now 10,400 + 3,200 + 7,100 + 2,000 = 22,700 km. I hope I haven’t jinxed it by writing that down. Some final totals:

• Distance: 2,087 km — 1,297 miles
• Climbing: 31,877m — 104,583′
• Longest ride: 115 km — 71 miles
• Most climbing: 2,914m — 9,560′
• Highest speed: 78 kph — 48.5 mph
• Highest elevation: 2,606m — 8,550′

Sometimes on these trips we end up with a special phrase that is used many times. On the Andes Trail it was “This is the best X ever.” This time it was “It’s X for a reason.” It started in Cinque Terre when we went to a café for a snack. It was a little hot and the shaded tables were taken. Wytze saw the sun umbrellas were folded up so he unfolded one that gave us a shaded table. The waitress came over and got mad, closing it saying, “It’s closed for a reason.” Soon after, the owner came over and opened it back up but that’s beside the point. Anything that was a little inconveniently placed or required some adjustment for the rest of the trip “was there for a reason.”