So we are one week into our trip, and being honest it just feels like a lovely holiday at the moment. But that being said, we have experienced a number of firsts, which we know with hindsight will be a momentous occasions or the first of many along this journey. None of the firsts have been overtly grand or the most dramatic versions we could imagine, but we didn’t want them to fall into the memory bank un-noticed.

The first ferry crossing – From Hull to Rotterdam, complete with terrible bar singer, a few drunk stag dos and many many motor-homers. To top it all, Ted managed to prevent his dinner from reappearing despite a choppy crossing (and to say that Ted has been known to get sea sick in a kayak I feel it’s a true accomplishment)

The first stamp in the passport – Excitedly handing over the passports at the European border post we explained that we were on a two year trip, heading to Madrid. You could instantly see the young border guard’s face drop slightly as he told us, as sensitively as possible, as he shattered our trip plans on day one, that we couldn’t spend two years in Europe and only had 90 days. After a bit of laughter (you can never laugh too much at a border post) we re-explained that our trip was two years long, but that we would be flying out of Madrid in November well within our 90 day limit. Success. A stamp in both passports and we were on our way…

The first navigation error – Rolled straight out of the ferry port and realised it had docked the opposite side of the estuary to where we had planned our route – Great start! A quick re-route and thanks to the Netherlands incredible cycleways we were finally on our way. We’ve already experienced many more navigation errors since then, so I’m pleased we got the first one over and done with quickly, harmlessly and with not much of a flap.

The first few nights of host hospitality – While settling into our first few days we enjoyed the incredible generosity of the community of cyclists, WarmShowers. Huge thanks to Hermen, Heine, Margriet, Irina & Erik for hosting us and feeding us in your beautiful homes. We loved meeting you all, hearing your stories of bike trips, life experiences and receiving your advice. Thanks for putting up with our endless packing and re-packing shenanigans!

The first days of a bikepacking diet – Getting used to lots of bread, pastry or pizza mainly eaten on park benches come rain or shine.

The first country border crossed – Passing from the glorious, although slightly samey, cycleways of the Netherlands  and into Germany was a very non-event. In fact, it took us a little while to realise we had crossed the border, but the deterioration of cycleway quality and industrial yards full of strange shaped concrete objects meant we quickly cottoned on – That, and the Lebkuchen in Aldi.

The first package of gear sent home – Despite having spent months trying to decide what to pack, the minute we hit our first hills with the bikes heavy weight we started questioning our choices. I’m telling myself it’s a right of passage to post some of your stuff home on a bikepacking trip, it means you’ve really begun once its over and done with, right!? Thanks again to Irina and Erik (our first hosts in Germany) who were kind enough to let us take over their garden for a few hours to slim down our stuff. Incidentally, we did it again few days later (this time in a much less glamourous setting by a bench outside a post office) meaning we’ve so far sent home almost 6kgs of stuff – It’s amazing how things that are ‘necessities’ at home really don’t feel like necessities anymore when you have to carry them on the bike all day.

The first crash/fall – Anyone who rides with me knows that I seemingly like to style my knees with scrapes and bruises, so it was inevitable that I’d end up with grazed knees at some point. What I didn’t expect was that this would be because Ted stopped immediately in front of me on the cycle path whilst I was momentarily distracted, so I crashed straight into him. I’d love to say my injury was sustained whilst flying down some epic techy singletrack descent, but no – just a silly crash pootling down the Rhine towards Koln. I’ll think of a more impressive story for the next scraped knees.

The first taste of off road riding – At Koln we joined the European Divide Trail (https://bikepacking.com/routes/european-divide-trail/) and plan to follow this South for a little while. Our first experiences of off-road riding with the loaded bikes was tough. When you’ve spent a few days on paved cycle ways it is so easy to forget how much more difficult and physical off road riding is – Your saddle sores quickly let you know otherwise. Especially when within an hour of joining the route it wanted to take us straight through the middle of a mine, and we spent the best part of an hour trying to find a railway crossing that was flooded with disgusting black sludgy water when we finally did find it. That aside, the riding since then has been pretty amazing, and the time spent in nature is the prefect antidote to the months of busyness we experienced in the run up to this trip.

So as these first few days tick by, we’re settling into things, settling into the bikes (especially now they’ve shed some weight) and settling into life on the road, but we’re still eating ice cream like we’re on holiday.