We've now been back home in Canada for a week. The last two weeks in Sweden were quite relaxing, with no biking at all. We had some fun at Liseberg, met friends and spent time with Andreas parents. On the way back, we had about 9 hours in Iceland, it was a splendid day, so we decided to rent a car and go explore a bit: Andreas summed up the most frequently asked questions about the bike tour in the Q and A below. Q: How far did you bike and for how many days? A: 3500 km during four months. After this we stayed a couple of weeks in Sweden. Q: How long in advance did you plan the trip? A: We started dreaming about a trip about four years before we left. Then six months in advance we made work arrangements to be free and started booking the first tickets. Around that time we also started accumulating the gear. Bikes we bought two months before we left. Q: Did you really bring the kids all of the way? A: Yes, the four and the six year old accompanied us all the way. Q: Which countries did you visit? A: We started by flying from Canada to Havanna, Cuba. Biked mostly rural Cuba for forty days. We flew to Milano, Italy and biked northern Italy for a month before heading north. We then biked through Switzerland and there passed the alps. Then on to France and Germany to finally reach Sweden. Q: What types of accommodation did you use? A: In Cuba we were had to stay at bed and breakfast's (38 nights) to reliably get food. We did a couple of nights wild camping when we didn't reach a village. In Italy we stayed in hotels (5 nights), appartments (4 nights), agriturismo (1 night) and the rest tenting mostly at campsites (25 nights). In Switzerland and France we only tented. In Germany we stayed in tent, hostels, and with friends. Q: Did you ever take a train or a bus? A: No, not during the four months before reaching Sweden. With this amount of gear it's just easier to pedal on. Q: Did you ever experience anything scary? A: Not really, crazy thunderstorms in Cuba and Italy when we were on the road. Q: What was you budget?
A: About $27000 CAD. $6000 for flights (Canada to Cuba. Cuba to Italy. Sweden to Edmonton). $6000 for new bikes and gear (we already had a lot of the bike and camping gear and technical clothing). $13000 for food and accommodation (four months. The time spent in Sweden was with family and friends and is excluded here). $2000 for vaccinations and travel insurance. Q: Is it safe to bike Cuba with kids? A: We found Cuba to be very safe. Few cars. Slow moving traffic. No dangerous animals. Docile dogs. Family oriented people. Local kids playing everywhere. No guns. No gangs. We even napped while the kids were playing with the neighborhood kids a couple of times. Q: Did you have any mechanical issues? A: Just minor things such as one broken bolt on the chariot and a snapped chain. The gear held up as expected. Q: How many punctures did you have? A: Four in total and all on Irene's bike. In Cuba we picked many tree thorns from the tires using a pair of pliers. Thanks to excellent tires they didn't puncture. Q: What was the best about the trip? A: Andreas: The feeling "we can do this" and to overcome the physical challenges. Irene: I can't pick a single thing. To bike over the alp was amazing and I always remember beautiful swims in the ocean, rivers, lakes. Q: Would you do this type of trip again? A: We would love to! Stay tuned.
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Our adventure definitely shifted gears, as we reached the "goal"; we are now in Sweden. I started to write this post the 3rd of August, it is now the 8th, but my phone which I blog from stopped working...Now I discovered it is MUCH easier to use a lap top and superb Swedish WiFi. Anyways, we arrived in Trelleborg, Sweden, on a sunny Sunday morning (July 30) after a rainy night on the ferry from Travemunde in Germany. It felt really strange to ride the bike off a large ferry onto the ground of my motherland. We had a few pieces of candy for breakfast, real classy, and wasted no time riding the short distance to my sisters house. It was so good to see her and her family again, a year since last time. I immediately felt that the bike tour was over as we sank down on real chairs to have breakfast. Not much more biking now, was the message I got from my brain...We had left our friends house near Hamburg the day before and biked about 80km to the ferry that day. The 10 hour overnight ferry ride was a big adventure for the kids, they stayed up until midnight playing in the playroom and then looking out over the festival in Travemunde as we left the harbour. Before we left Germany we got to spend a few days with our former neighbours and friends Torsten and Christina and their kids Jonas and Zoey. We invaded their nice house with our filthy bags and had a great, relaxing time. The days before that had been somewhat rainy, to say the least. Now we have spent a week and a bit in Sweden and have great visits here and there. There is not enough time as always and right now I am at my parents with a nasty cold while Andreas is at his folks with the kids. First time in 4 months we are apart for more than a couple of hours! Good for all of us..This evening I, mamma, pappa, went to concert held in a church; a relative of mine played the organ and piano and his wife, an amazing soprano, sang. It was beautiful. Now, photos! And please come back, we still have some adventures to look back at!! And here are some pics from our last week in Germany, most of days soaked in rain...
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AuthorWelcome to our family's 2017 bike touring blog! Who's going? Archives
October 2017
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