For a long time we have been convinced that we want to start in Southern Europe. There it is simply better weather in March than further north. Where exactly we had not yet determined. The climate in March in southern Spain seems slightly better than in southern Italy or Greece, so that became a first thought.
When we spoke to Disha's father about this, who has a clinic in Benidorm, he came up with an address of a carrier/mover who have a kind of shuttle service in Benidorm. The contact was quickly made and an agreement about transport as well; for only 175 euros the bike with luggage comes there.
So start in Benidorm?
We started to have some doubts, because then we would soon be in fairly familiar territory (France) or in regions where we could easily get to in normal holidays (England, the Netherlands, Belgium, West Germany itself Southern Norway is nowadays easily accessible from the Netherlands). And what if there are in the cable and we have to abort our journey earlier? Then we would not have been to Eastern Europe, where, given the difficulties this summer to get to France by train, we may find it more difficult to get to the tandem in the future.
Plan changed. We want to start in Athens.
Find a carrier who can bring our packed tandem to Athens (at a reasonable price). Googling on transport to Greece yielded quite a few hits in the Rotterdam region, but a first round of emailing only resulted in negative reactions. Then searched for movers… Through a Dutch mover we came into contact with a Greek party, but they asked a lot of (stupid / strange?) questions: how high we live and whether there is an elevator, for example. Then came an offer of 1350 euros …..
Again a few carriers in the Rotterdam region emailed, but there was not much response. However, a round of calling did, although 1 carrier only did drinks, so if we score a few boxes of wine in Greece and want to transport them to the Netherlands they would like to help 😉 us. One advised the DHL and even had a telephone number of the right branch and department. However, the operator there advised to e-mail. after a few days an email came back from them advising them to call….. Hurry up like that.
We almost started to doubt whether it would still work when we found a carrier that responded positively and mentioned a price of 250 euros. YES! Athens here we come! Immediately booked a flight and an air bnb. February 24th we leave! And the 28th we really get on the bike (well ff site seeing when you're there, right?)
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