A Few Days Full of Miles and Madness

Distance: 1953 km
Regions: Bavaria, Gelderland, Hessen, North Holland, North Rhine–Westphalia, Thuringia
Participants: 9
Tasks: Moving, collecting, road trips, and carpooling
Cities: Amsterdam, Bonn, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt am Main, Jena, Mühlhausen, Munich, Nijmegen, Nuremberg

The last weeks of October brought one of the most unforgettable journeys I’ve ever taken, a whirlwind of long roads, new faces, small victories and endless miles.
Golden autumn painted the landscapes of Germany, and somewhere between the fields of Thuringia and the highways of Bavaria, I found both exhaustion and joy in equal measure.

It all started on a Sunday morning at Schiphol Airport, where I picked up my first passenger, someone arriving from abroad. The roads were packed, the sky still grey with early light, but I could already sense that this trip would turn into something bigger than just another drive.

From there, I headed to Amsterdam to pick up a friend who’d be joining me for the journey to Germany. We stood at my place, watching the city wake up below us, lights flickering on, trams starting to hum, and that early calm before the storm. But we didn’t have much time to linger. Our first mission awaited: collecting a free carpet for our Recyclingbank Initiative, turning unwanted items into something useful again.

That small task quickly turned into a test of teamwork (and first aid) when one of the carpool passengers got injured while helping. This was enough to remind us that even the simplest moments on the road can take unexpected turns.

After dropping the injured passenger safely home, we continued east, picking up two more travellers heading toward Mühlhausen. The conversations, the stories, from someone born in Thuringia to another who had returned there for work, gave the miles meaning. By the time we reached our destination that night, passing a group of wild boars crossing the road in the dark, we were tired but smiling.

Monday was quieter, a short trip from Mühlhausen to Kassel and back, a brief yet calm moment before Tuesday’s storm.

Then came Tuesday: the finale.

It began early, before sunrise, with a drive from Muhlhausen to Jena, the city of Carl Zeiss and his legendary lenses. I was to pick up another BlaBlaCar passenger, a Bavarian who, like me, had fallen in love with the calm and nature of Thuringia. My fuel card had stopped working and with only a quarter tank left, I drove as efficiently as humanly possible across half of Germany, hoping to reach Munich to refuel with cash.

Two accidents, countless detours and a hopeless parking search in crowded Munich later, I finally started the main task of the day: moving a client’s belongings from Munich to Nijmegen (723 km further).

I filled the rest of my journey with other passengers because I don’t want to drive half empty and it’s better for the planet to share your rides anyway 😉. Three passengers cancelled at the last minute which gave me the chance to replan a bit. Looking back, that might have been a blessing in disguise. In Nuremberg, I met two new travellers. It’s a beautiful city but a nightmare for vans: tight streets, endless lights, and traffic in every direction.

In Frankfurt, I picked up one more passenger while the others got off. Around Bonn the van was full again. It was already 8 p.m., but giving up is never an option for me.
I pushed the van towards maximum speed — tires nearly glowing at 4.1 bar. Somehow, everything held together. Near the border, I eased off, letting the speed fall to 100 km/h over two long kilometres, a good reminder of how long your braking distance really is at high speeds.

At 9 p.m., I reached Nijmegen. Within eight minutes, we’d carried everything up to the eleventh floor which is a record time. Then it was time to refuel, drive home calmly (determined to keep the tank full this time 😉), unload a few last boxes, and head straight for Schiphol, just in time to catch the final staff member for a late checkout.

The day ended with the last train home. I hauled the final bags upstairs, collapsed into bed, and drifted off, no dinner, no energy, but an immense feeling of satisfaction.

Everything that could go wrong did: a blocked card, accidents, traffic, delays, exhaustion. And yet, somehow, it all came together. No energy drinks. No panic. Just persistence and a bit of luck.

It was chaos. It was madness. But this is life on the road, and I’d do it all over again.

Would you like to join me on one of my road trips or want to transport some goods from A to B or simply need changing your interior on a tight budget, call or send us a message and we respond soon to your messages 😉.

Whatsapp: +3185-0640420.