Employee Inside Story: Cycling from Istanbul to our production site in Finsterwalde, Germany

The tour started in Istanbul and went through the Balkans, Sofia, Belgrade, Budapest, Brno, Bad Schandau, Pirna back to Finsterwalde. The trip was planned completely alone, but our colleague met another distance cyclist on the way, who eventually accompanied him for a few days.

The biggest challenge on the tour? "Finding a bed in the evening," Gerd Werner tells us as the biggest challenge of his otherwise mostly trouble-free bike trip. "I had no complaints on the way, no sore muscles or sore spots," says the voestalpine Wire Germany employee happily.

And even with the many experiences and impressions, the positive outweighs the negative - even though the start was quite mixed. "It's better not to ride a bike in Istanbul. The city is huge - 100 km long, 80 km wide," groans Gerd Werner. Broken seat posts, police checks, pouring rain or difficult traffic conditions - none of this could deter Gerd Werner from his goal - to reach Finsterwalde by bicycle.

On the other hand, the friendliness and support of the people, the driving style of the drivers in Hungary "there are the friendliest drivers" and beautiful landscapes especially Bulgaria, these are just some of the positive impressions of the trip that Gerd Werner takes back to Germany.

Our colleague Gerd Werner has completed over 2400 km by bike in 4 weeks. That's a daily mileage of around 80 - 130 km and he did it constantly over four weeks - you must have a certain level of fitness, passion and, above all, the ability to suffer. In total Gerd Werner sat in the saddle for a total of 150 hours. 

And the next challenge?