Family Tandem Trip

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Sixmile

Veteran
Location
N Ireland
A few months ago I had started pulling together some dates, locations and destinations for a little trip with my two girls, now 5 & 6 years old. I was keen to hire out a Circe tandem for the experience and we ended up booking flights to Bristol.

Friday
Belfast to Bristol flight
Luggage - 1 x Salsa Dry Bag, 1 x Polaris Handlebar bag, 1 x water bottle.
Bus from airport to city centre
Walked to hotel and had a kip.

Saturday
Tandem was delivered to the hotel and we spent 30 minutes+ with Bristol Tandem Hire as they talked us through the set up and did some paperwork for the hire. Then we were off..

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We headed out towards Bath on the B2B greenway. It was pretty busy with all sorts of bikes. The signage was mostly good. A few hours later we were in Bath.

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We got some ice cream and set about trying to find the two tunnels greenway. After faffing about Bath for a bit and asking some locals, we ended up retracing our steps to find the link bridge to the two tunnels. Still a lot of bikes but not as busy as the B2B path. The tunnels were fantastic but impossible to get good shots of.

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On we headed to Wellow at the end of the greenway and hired a pony for a different kind of riding.

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After some drinks and snacks, it was back on the tandem to find our accommodation booked through Airbnb. It ended up being <200 yards from the greenway. I squeezed the bike into the kitchen, made dinner and then put the girls to bed and relaxed for a few hours.

Day total: 45 miles.

Sunday
We'd breakfast in the cottage, had a bath, tidied up and got the bags strapped onto the bike with the Polaris straps, which held everything from teddies, drinks, coats, a massive d lock and whatever else we ended up with. It was time to say goodbye to the cottage and get going again.

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We'd passed a train station yesterday and checked it out and decided to have a ride on it today. We locked up the tandem, bought a few tickets and hopped on the steam train for an hour or so. A really relaxing start to the day.

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The girls had wanted to head to the tunnels again, so once back on the bike we headed to Bath (but not quite) and took the correct bridge this time. I now realize that the sign for the greenway is obscured by an overhanging tree when coming from the Bristol side. Four tunnels later (2 x 2) we did a U turn to head back towards Bristol. The path was really busy today as the sun was splitting the trees though again, not as busy up by the tunnels.

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We rolled back into Bristol around 5pm, just enough time for dinner and to hand the tandem back. Then we'd a bus ride to the airport, flight back to Belfast and mummy picked us up and brought us home.

Day Total: 35 miles.

Of course now, we really want a Circe Tandem!!
 
What a great weekend and start to cycle touring for the girls!

Mike
 
Location
España
That's a great story! Well done!
Love to see families out touring.
I was chatting to a couple last year and they toured when their kids were small in trailers then stopped for the toddler ages. Now that the kids were a bit older they were renting electric bikes for the kids (about 9/10) so they could all do decent distances.
 
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