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@Heldring
Update time!
Now that I've read more I finally decided on going on the Southern route. I'll be following the Amsterdam-Rijn canal from Amsterdam to Tiel, then I'll follow the Rijn river into Germany to Frankfurt am Main from where I'll go to Vienna. From Vienna I'll be following the Donau river to Bratislava, Budapest, and Belgrado. From Belgrado I'll cycle southwards to Bulgaria from where I'll cross Into Turkey. Following the big rivers in Europe means I won't gain as many elevation meters, which is nice.
From there I'll cross Turkey through Ankara, Sivas & Erzurum and cross the Iranian border to travel to Tabriz & Tehran
From Masshad I'll (hopefully) cross the Turkmen border from where I'll try to race through the country before my week-long travel visa runs out. And then ...
Good news! Yay for open borders! No more need for a visa by the time I'll reach Uzbekistan. This means I can comfortably stay there for at least 30 days before I'll go to Kyrgyzstan. In Uzbekistan I'd like to see Samarkand and Tashkent but I'll have to put some more research into the region. From there I'm still planning which route to take. The massive Taklamakan desert in the Xinjiang region is keeping me up at night.
This is what the route roughly looks like right now
More good visa news: I found out I can get second passport from the Municipality. This means I can leave that second passport here, have someone else apply me for a Chinese visa in the Netherlands while I'm off somewhere camping in a ditch, and then post the 2nd Passport + Chinese visa to a post office on the road where I can then pick it up! Genius nón?
nb: suggestions for the route are more than welcome!