Why did I start cycling? Why did I decide to travel around the world and why did I not stop? These are the questions that I have been asked most often since I started to travel around the world by bicycle almost 50 years ago. I was 20 when I decided to take a bicycle trip, searching for adventure and with the desire to discover the world. That trip lasted two years. When I returned to my hometown in Germany, I realized that I didn't especially like my work and I wondered why I had to spend the rest of my life doing something that did not really interest me. Then I realized that I was much more interested in discovering the world.
Why I started to pedal instead of playing tennis or football. Well, it was quite simple; I was not good enough to play soccer professionally, as I had wanted, so, I decided to choose the bike. I liked to use the bike to move, to do sports and it was also a cheap form of transportation. The bike is sporty and cheap.
So the bike became the best mode of transport, gave me independence and moreover, it was cheap. Besides, riding a bike, gives you the opportunity to approach people more easily, the people think "if you are on a bike, you cannot be a bad guy!" It becomes a kind of passport, a business card. Thanks to the bike and the good will of the people, I always found help, and this is very important for someone like me who never carries money. Nowadays it is more common to meet people who go around the world by bicycle, but when I started cycling it was very strange, so, when people saw me with my bike, painted and decorated, they first looked at me curiously but then wondered if they could help me with something.
But, coming back to my first bike trip, I actually did my first bike ride in 1958, with the idea of discovering new places. A few months later, on my return, I went to work as an apprentice in the manufacture of tools. At the end of the apprenticeship and before I decided to start working seriously, I decided to give myself a gift -- a trip for a year. The trip was extended a bit longer than I expected, and a year and a half after my departure I decided to return to my hometown to work, marry, have children ... in short, all those things that one assumes one has to do. But after a year, I realized that was not what I wanted and not what I expected from life. On the 4th of November 1962, I took my bike and started a wonderful journey that has not yet reached its end.
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