The big journey begins

In mid-November 2024, after two and a half years of planning and preparation, we set off on our big trip to Cyprus. Our new home.

So we can start our world trip from there in 2025.

After we decided to leave Germany, we started selling everything.

House, furniture, clothes—everything..

Except for my car and our beloved bicycles.

But even those were lost after we tried to ship them to Cyprus, which firstly wouldn't have been cheap and secondly would have been a bit difficult to pack.

The planning for our emigration and world trip began in January 2022, and we moved into a small apartment in mid-November 2022 with our few belongings.

It was strange that we actually managed to sell everything in less than a year.

But before we were allowed to leave, our lovely neighbors in Hangelar organized a fantastic farewell party.

From Hangelar, we moved to Uthweiler into a small but very nice apartment. We initially rented it for only two months, but the chemistry between the landlord and us was perfect from the very first moment, and we ended up staying for two years.

A wonderful friendship developed between our landlords and us.

So wonderful, in fact, that we'll be spending Christmas and New Year's Eve 2024/25 together in Dubai.

It was such a wonderful time in Uthweiler that saying goodbye was incredibly difficult. We spent many evenings with our fantastic neighbors and our newfound friends. We never experienced such a great sense of community, not even in Hangelar. Of course, there were also farewell parties there—no, what am I saying, several!

We packed our suitcases, far more than we had originally planned.

But of course, we also had to consider that we would be staying in Cyprus for at least six months the first time, so we needed much more and different things there than we would later on our round-the-world trip.

The day of departure drew nearer, and so came the hardest and probably most emotional farewell for us, namely to our children and now grandchildren.

The day we arrived was very, very tiring. We had to get up at four o'clock and, after a train, a flight, and a subsequent car ride, didn't arrive in Paphos at our temporary apartment until 8:00 p.m.

But all in all, everything went perfectly.

But there was no time to rest the next day, because Katharina, our real estate agent, had already scheduled the first viewings for us.

On the first day, however, we didn't find anything quite right. It's not so easy to find an apartment here that meets our specific requirements.

But on our fourth day in Cyprus, we finally found a truly fantastic apartment. With a direct view of the sea and the Paphos lighthouse. "Simply breathtaking."

Then things really got going, because Rainer's and my favorite pastime (we both hate it) began. We had to go shopping. A joy for others, a punishment for us.

But there was no way around it, because the apartments here are all fully furnished, but we really wanted a good coffee machine and a few other things that aren't standard in apartments here.

We'll write a separate article about the expenses of our emigration. Mittlerweile haben wir alles fertig und können die Tage am Meer in der Sonne genießen.

I'll be posting updates about our time in Paphos from time to time.

Right now, we're looking forward to spending time with our friends in Dubai. We'll share more about that too.