Even the longest cycling trip comes to an end at some point. After almost exactly two years, this was also the case with my trip around the world. Time for a little conclusion, a few final photos and a few statistics…

A small trip around the globe is only finished once you reach a place you left to the east by coming from the west. The last part of my two-year cycling journey took me via Paris and Bruges to Berlin, where I completed my circumnavigation of the world at the Victory Column.

After more than a year and a half the time had come - with Portugal I had European soil under my tires again! From the westernmost tip of the Eurasian mainland I cycled to Seville, the start and finish point of the first circumnavigation of the world over 500 years ago. In the following weeks I crossed Spain on the trail of the Way of St. James.

Now the eastern half of the ACA Southern Tier was on the agenda. From Austin the route initially continued hilly to the plains of Louisiana. After beautiful New Orleans, I cycled briefly through Mississippi and Alabama before finally reaching Florida, the last state of this US crossing.

The next continent was on the agenda! The route through the United States was dictated by the approaching winter. First I went south from San Francisco along the Pacific coast and then reached Texas, cycling near the Mexican border.

Now I had to cross the largest ocean in the world, the Pacific. But since it has many exciting islands to offer, I wanted to take some time for it. After two and a half wet and cold weeks on New Zealand’s North Island, I travelled to Fiji’s island world for two and a half weeks. And then there was the date line…

Having arrived at the end of the Eurasian mainland, the islands of Indonesia lay before me. First I cycled across Sumatra for a month, which was not always an easy undertaking. On Java I met the Belgian touring cyclist Jade, with whom I traveled all the way to Bali. A wonderful time.

The vast majority of departures from a country have always been stress-free. But leaving India wasn't one of them... My reward was Thailand, one of the easiest and most beautiful travel destinations ever! In Malaysia I cycled through the exciting and loud rainforest - which unfortunately ended at the oil palm plantations.

From Varanasi I cycled to the southernmost mountain ranges of the Himalayas. I passed rhinos, termites and crocodiles to the pagodas of Kathmandu. I completed my crossing of the Indian subcontinent in Kolkata after visiting the ancient sites of Bihar.

From Muscat I flew almost two hours across the Arabian Sea to Mumbai. A lot was different there now - and from now on I was traveling alone. I cycled across India to some of the most important Hindu and Buddhist monuments that the big country has to offer. And in the end, India turned out to be a surprisingly beautiful country for cycle touring!

From Riyadh we continued east through one of the largest sandy deserts in the world. The reward for the effort was soon the view of the Persian Gulf. We continued to the ultra-modern cities of Abu Dhabi and Dubai and then through the Hajar Mountains to Oman's Batina Plains. Great scenic and cultural contrasts awaited us.

From Petra, the capital of the Nabataeans, we headed south into the vast Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. No country has been so different on our trip so far, and in no other country have we received such a warm welcome. And there was a lot to discover…

After arriving in Haifa by ship, we first explored the area around the Sea of Galilee. At first we often cycled through dense forests, but after Jerusalem it was not far to the land of camels and date palms!

After returning by train and bus to Aksaray, the southernmost place of our trip so far, we went through the wide Konya plain to the Mediterranean Sea coast, from where we took a ferry to Cyprus. After crossing Cyprus, we were faced with the question of how best to get to Israel…

From Tbilisi we cycled to Armenia, where we first followed the Debed River to the southwest. Two pass roads further we found ourselves again in a steppe landscape around Yerevan. There we made new plans to continue east - the detour to Southeast Asia is getting a detour...

After visiting the exciting Cappadocia we wanted to enjoy some seashore again. To do this, we left the highlands to the north-east to the Black Sea coast, from where we made our way through the Lesser Caucasus to Tbilisi.

We went to Asia via the Bosporus. From the Sea of Marmara we drove to the Central Anatolian highlands, where we paid a visit to the Turkish capital Ankara, the mighty salt lake Tuz Gölü and the fascinating region of Cappadocia.

From Belgrade we cycled for a while along the Danube through the famous Iron Gates. In Bulgaria we went via the Iskar Gorge, Sofia and Plovdiv to a short detour to Greece and then on to the Orient.

After reaching Slovakia, we descended from the Carpathians into the great Pannonian Plain, where we more or less followed the Tisza south to the Danube.

After Gdansk we were faced with the question of how to continue when the road to the east becomes more and more rocky - for the necessary "bend" to the south, the Polish long-distance cycle route "Green Velo" invited us, which we followed to the Carpathians.