About me

My name is Eelco Weijmans. I was born on July 17th 1980 in the city of Alkmaar, but grew up in tiny little village of Muiderberg, close to the Dutch capital of Amsterdam. After finishing grammar-school, I was planning on studying Medicine, but unfortunately the central admission office declined my first application, due to the strange random-change based system that is used in the Netherlands.

After a year of working as a soon-to-be software engineer, I applied once more, but learning from the previous attempt, I also decided to fill out an application for starting out my studies in both Sweden and Belgium. The latter one in the end accepted me, so I was off to start my studies at the University of Diepenbeek. A very difficult but satisfying year followed, and though I had my mind set to staying in Belgium for finishing my studies, things changed when I was admitted to an Amsterdam university the year after.

So, after a great mind-struggle during a cycle trip trough Northern Scandinavia, I decided to move back to Amsterdam, without knowing this would mean I would have to start my studies all over again, even though I had finished my year in Belgium with good marks.

After settling down in Amsterdam, I became a member of the Amsterdam student road-cycling and speed skating club IJSVU, which is now called by its new name, Skits. This made it possible for me to spend most of the year doing one of the things I loved most: cycling. Unfortunately, the speed skating thing never really worked out for me.

Every year when summer came, I was eager to get upon my bicycle again, taking my tent, and riding wherever the road brought me. Ever since just before my seventeenth birthday, I've been completely addicted to doing this, and each year my sturdy bike would bring me to another European country to explore. Scandinavia, the United Kingdom, both middle and eastern Europe, there's only a few countries missing on the list. All were great, but of course there is a couple of favorites as well (just call the words Slovenia, Romania, Scotland or northern Scandinavia at me, and I'll find a way to convince you these are the right places to visit).

Now, August 2005, after graduating as a Master of Science in Medicine, it's time for the next big step: Riding from Amsterdam to China, and, because I'll be around there anyway, continue to Indonesia, and closing the circle by riding back home.