New Zealand: Cycling the Wild Far North
Some people know how to take a vacation. They book a week or ten days in a resort or a hotel, spend some time on the beach, eat well and have a good time. Or they travel in style to Europe, hopping between ten cities in ten days, seeing all the important sights. For some reason we are not those people. Some years ago we became addicted to cycle touring, and having a kid hasn’t seemed to change it so far. There is something about travelling slow and into the unknown that just appeals to us. So I guess when we chose New Zealand as our winter travel destination we…
Victoria: A Wet Ride and a Warm Stay
On the last weekend in November, literally hours before selling our car, we headed to Victoria for the weekend. Of course, the car only served us to reach Tsawwassen – from there we were on our bikes, as usual. We had about 7 km to ride to the ferry terminal and our mission was to keep Neil awake so he would fall asleep on the other side. That included leaving his trailer open and it was very cold. He wasn’t the happiest camper, but once we arrived to the Kids Zone on the ferry everything was better again. Those Kids Zones have proved themselves to be very useful. After getting…
Family Cycling Journey to Brittany, France (Video)
In September 2016 we set off on a three week cycling trip in France with our 18 months old toddler and his balance bike. We explored Brittany from the capital Rennes along canals and greenways to Roscoff and then along the north coast to Brest. We all had an amazing time and enjoyed the French cuisine and wonderful bakeries.
Seattle: Post Election Weekend of Urban Cycling Exploration
It was a stressful week with the US elections taking over everything and everywhere. For some reason, not in my worst nightmares, did I ever think Donald Trump would become the next president. I followed the elections a little bit (because how could you not), and after the second debate I just decided that there was no way this bully was going to win. I guess I am still an optimist inside, but sometimes you just fall on your face. We still decided to go ahead with our plans to go to Seattle for the long weekend. So the atmosphere on the streets wouldn’t be as cheerful as we hoped, but…
France: Cycling in the Place Where You Can’t Go Wrong
We heard from several people that “you can’t go wrong” when going to France. However it seemed that in the beginning everything was going wrong. We arrived early in the morning to Paris after hardly getting any sleep on the flight. The flight was long but went well. We had an extra seat for Neil so it was a lot easier than to hold him on our lap the whole time. I discovered a while ago (or rather, he discovered) that stickers keep him busy for a long time, so I bought a dollar store worth of stickers to take with us on the flight. I think that by the…
Pacific Spirit Ride: Balance Bike in the Forest (Video)
Back in August we took Neil for a ride in Pacific Spirit Park. He is getting quite good on his balance bike, but it was his first ride in the forest and he had a great time. I created a short clip of the ride.
BC Day ‘Short’ Weekend (Mis)adventures
Our car is a weekend warrior, pretty much like us these days. We don’t use it at all during the week since we get around by bike or by walking, but on weekends, especially in summer, we put it to good use mostly to get out of the city. I don’t think we had any problems with it in the five years we owned our old beat-up Subaru Legacy, but on the previous long weekend one of the rear tires blew out. In fact, the long weekend before that we also weren’t off to a good start as Neil threw up all over himself ten minutes after we left home and we almost…
Agassiz Farms Cycle Tour: How We Ended Up in Paradise
On Saturday last weekend we joined the Agassiz Farm Cycle Tour, a self guided tour, in which many farms are open to visitors and offer delicious food. The combination of cycling and food can rarely fail, so I knew we were up for a treat. I was excited about this ride because Agassiz is an area that we don’t know, and I am always happy to discover a new area by bike. A couple of years ago we did the Slow Food Ride in Pemberton together with Pascale and Ignacio. I think both Pascale and I were already pregnant back then (although it was probably still a secret, for both of us), so they were the first…
Allison Lake: A Short Return of Winter
We were heading towards Merritt. The rain was pounding on our car and it seemed like the wind was picking up. But we had hope. After all, many times when we’d driven east the weather was bad leaving Vancouver, but past Hope it would improve. And if it was still raining past Hope then immediately after going down from the Coquihalla summit, the sun would be shining, with no sign of rain. So we hoped. But the weather did not get better past Hope and it did not get better on the Coquihalla. In fact, as we were getting close to Merritt it seemed like the rain got stronger and the…
Taking My Ride With Destiny: Cycling Korea & Japan (Video)
When our son Neil was seven months old we went on a cycling trip to South Korea – from Seoul to Busan and then around Jeju Island and Japan – across Kyushu and island hopping south to Okinawa. Although we had both done many cycling trips before, we didn’t know what it would be like to travel by bike with our baby in tow. It really felt like we were taking our ride with destiny… It turned out to be an amazing experience, and such a great way to get to know our son and see him develop every day. We had many people helping and reaching out to us along the way, which made…
