Last day of my vacation

On 1/2/2019, I woke up at 7am, probably due to my rhythm in the past few weeks. I had breakfast and then started organizing the transportation of my bike by plane via Shanghai to Frankfurt. Since my flight involved two airlines that don't cooperate well, I had to call each one separately to declare the transport. Lufthansa then told me that if I also check in an additional piece of luggage with the bike, it would cost me $278 US dollars. China Airlines on the flight from Taipei to Shanghai had no problems. The only issue was that they couldn't check my luggage through to Shanghai. Which means...Arrival in Shanghai...Stamp in the passport...Pick up the luggage...Change terminals...Drop off the bike at the Lufthansa counter...Stamp in the passport...Security check...Departure.

I had been thinking all day whether it would work well. But at least everything was now declared.

At around 11am, I headed to the bike shop. There, I spent the day cleaning and getting the bike ready for travel. It was very entertaining and reminded me a bit of my apprenticeship or Karate Kid training camp with Mr. Miyagi. I didn't arrive at the hostel until 5pm with my packed bike, and I added additional luggage to the box until I reached 20kg. Then I tried to sneak the rest of my luggage through as carry-on. At 6pm, I met up with Kuanyu, whom I know from Mannheim, to walk through the night market and have a small dinner together. During our first meeting, he had told me that he had inquired in Taipei if the Free Walking Tour needed a guide because he would like to do it. That was incredibly flattering to me, to have inspired him. I hope I can join one of his tours someday.

For the second dinner of the day, I went to have lamb hot pot with Max from the bike shop and two of his friends. It was a nice evening with a few beers and a lot of food. I fell into bed at half past midnight, completely exhausted.

The flights the next day went super smoothly. No complications or questions from the airline. I met Ron at Frankfurt Airport at around 7pm Germany time. After over a year, he finally received his bike and we had a wheat beer together. The day couldn't have gone any better. I didn't have to pay anything extra for the bike.

As a short conclusion for my time in Taiwan...

Weather: The optimal travel time would probably have been 1-2 weeks earlier. But I really enjoyed experiencing different temperatures and weather.

Route: I have asked myself several times why I chose this route. It was simply perfect and unbelievably beautiful. The profile was exactly right for my performance. I didn't do much research, I just tried to fit 18 days well. This result was a stroke of luck.

Country and people: The highlights of this country, in terms of nature and diversity, are probably my favorite. However, I also had 2 days on the west coast that made me sad because of pollution and smog. The people were without exception so pleasant to interact with. The basic respect and admiration that you as a European receive out of nowhere is indescribable and not so easy to handle respectfully. For me, choosing to explore this country by bike was probably the best idea of 2018 :-D

Wishing everyone a good start to 2019