Packing up and (properly) leaving Utrecht

August 27, 2023 to September 3, 2023

We always knew our last week in Utrecht was going to be busy and a bit tough. We stayed with our very close friends with their 7 year old twins in their very little house. James said towards the end of the week that he hoped that the close proximity might make us all a bit crabby with each other and make the goodbyes a bit easier. It actually had the opposite effect when our families merged seamlessly even though it was the first week back at school for the boys and the kick off week for the courses Jess organizes and just generally the time you don't need house guests with a 2 year old.

The biggest priority was cleaning and packing all our equipment, and this took the most of our time. We took over the backyard with our tent and scrubbed every inch of it with warm water. Chase owns a bike shop which worked to our advantage for packing the bikes where James could clean them and take them apart with tools on hand. We were well aware that we would be a nightmare for NZ's Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) - bikes, camping gear, and spending time on farms - so we were determined to be organized and not spend more time there than necessary at the end of our trip.

Getting everything in our weight/baggage allowance was a puzzle. We had all our touring gear, plus the 3 boxes scattered around Utrecht with things that didn't quite make it onto the ship or home with us in February. Korean air had a reasonable bike policy - they were transportable as an extra bag of up to 23kg. Our bikes were heavier than expected - mine was 20kg before it even got into the box - so we couldn't actually pack as much in as we thought. Although some people transport their trailers as a pram, we had a foldable one to take onboard and enough stress so we purchased that as an extra item and stuffed it with our sleeping bags and puffer jackets. We did buy an ultra large pram bag (about the only one big enough to fit it) which made me feel a bit more secure about it. Everything else had to fit in 3 checked suitcases and 3 carry on bags. If we weren't relocating our entire life to the other side of the world it would have been okay, but in the end we shipped two extra boxes home to save having to do so much thinking. Our panniers alone were one 10kg box.

Besides packing, we managed to catch up with friends and colleagues around Utrecht for one more time. We were stoked to make it to Knox and Rem's 7th birthday party having been to all the other ones over the years. James had one more ride with the Dirtbag crew on the Wednesday night ride that he helped to form a few years back. We had pizza at the shop on Friday night, something we did often over the last 7 years.

We'd put off thinking too much about saying goodbye to our home for a very long time, but over the week the days slowly ticked down and all too soon it was Saturday night and we were preparing for our last night in Utrecht for the foreseeable future.

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