Straight after breakfast it was down to the garage for bike cleaning duties for us both. Wendy had already made contact with an online bike dealer (later found out he was in Belgium) who had made us a fairly decent offer, but we were not entirely satisfied. And they wanted us to pack the bikes in boxes, then they would arrange for a courier to pick them up. Once received and inspected, and a few days later, they would deposit the money into our bank account. By that time we would be back home, sort of open to being ripped off.
So, after cleaning the bikes to a suitable standard, we decided to see if there was any interest from the local bike shops. We found one run by a pleasant and approachable young man who, after seeing the bikes agreed to a price that we were very happy with. He paid us cash that same afternoon; deal done and dusted.
Looking back at our options, if we had hired the bikes, not that we could find a one way hire from Budapest to Amsterdam, it would have cost a lot more dollars than we spent buying and selling. So we felt that it was a good outcome after all. We became very attached to those bikes and would have loved to take them home, but neither the logistics nor the monetary considerations stack up, so sadly we had to part company.
After all that excitement we didn’t feel like doing too much of anything, but we did have a nice wander around Haarlem just to reacquaint ourselves with the layout of the city. Tomorrow we will be free (and bike-less) and able to get out and about in earnest.
It will feel strange going to the airport to fly home next week without having to partly disassemble and box bikes, then organise a maxi taxi and get them checked in the oversize luggage system, etc. It’s actually quite a relief really, when we sit and think it through.
The train or bus is now our only option for transport and sightseeing.
