Veni Vidi Fietsie! (We came, we saw, we cycled...)
E-mail of Sunday, June 2nd 2013, 11.34 hrs.
Hello everyone,
We’re home!
After a long but pleasant journey, we arrived at about eleven p.m. yesterday. It’s odd to have a day lasting 31 hours, but because of the favourable travelling time, we have no jetlag.
So now it’s ‘back to normal’ ... The last seven weeks we’ve led a completely different life and will have to get used to many things again. Amongst others, cycling in Holland: on the right, putting our hands out to indicate a change of direction and not jumping the traffic lights.
But also getting used to Dutch food, not having to pack your ‘bedroom’ every morning and unpack it again every evening.
What luxury, not to have to look for somewhere to eat and sleep every day.
Getting used to a different daily rhythm and to sitting on an office chair instead of a saddle.
The most difficult thing will be the Dutch culture; a difference between day and night with the Japanese, or from here to Tokyo.
Getting used to being married? Surely not. We’ll carry on working as usual, rebuilding our house, making music, and engineering.
But I wonder... I think Remy will have to get used to something else: these seven weeks he thought we should have got married much sooner: I’d never been so docile. But, of course, he had the GPS...
(He doesn’t yet know, but next year I’ll have it).
So a lot of things to get used to. Should we meet during the coming weeks, don’t be surprised if we apologise unnecessarily on every occasion or thank you effusively. Or if we can’t use a knife and fork properly. Or slurp very loudly. And if we move up and down quickly, we’re not doing some exercises, but are showing you our deepest respect and affection.
A few statistics to end with:
- there is a little more than 3000 kilometres on our counters
- we had no flats
- the only mishap was a broken pedal on my bike. Luckily, there are so many bike repair shops in Japan that I had a new pair within half an hour.
- highest point: 2305 metres (Mount Fuji)
- longest snake (alive) that we saw: about 3 metres
- number of earthquakes: one. But apparently we missed some.
We’d like to thank you all for enjoying our unforgettable journey with us!
Hearty greetings,
Remy & Gea
