Andy in Germany
Guru
- Location
- Freiburg im Breisgau
I'm taking a break from applications for a bit. We're off for the next few days to a place near near Giengen an der Brenz, famous for being the home of the Steiff Teddy Bar, so I guess that's one days outing already decided.
The plan today is to catch the train to Aalen, change for Giengen then cycle from the station to where we'll be staying, which is about 4 km away. Elder and Middle Son would like to ride a bit further so we may get off a station or two earlier and ride for about 10k total. A suggestion we ride from Aalen (40k) was vetoed fairly quickly on the basis it is hot and they haven't ridden with loaded bikes before: we're taking this slowly as I want them to have a positive experience.
One disadvantage of having work bikes is that we don't own any cycling bags (why bother when you can chuck everything into the Bakfiets/Xttracycle?) Last night we were organising everything into backpacks and suddenly realised some local friends have been cycle touring as a family before and have panniers enough for all. After a quick phone call The Elder and Middle Son and I legged it off to pick them up. Now everyone is carrying their stuff on the bike instead of on their back which you'll appreciate makes a big difference.
I'm taking it very slowly here. It's important that things run as smoothly as possible as I'd really like us to ride a bit more together in the future. The older lads learned this year what they are capable of so double figures don't faze them any more but Beautiful Wife and Younger Son still get nervous if they have to do more than a couple of K's or there is a hill in sight, so I'd like this to be a good experience for them.
Also we discovered yesterday that Middle Son has left his lock at a friends house so we only have two locks between us for five bikes...
The plan today is to catch the train to Aalen, change for Giengen then cycle from the station to where we'll be staying, which is about 4 km away. Elder and Middle Son would like to ride a bit further so we may get off a station or two earlier and ride for about 10k total. A suggestion we ride from Aalen (40k) was vetoed fairly quickly on the basis it is hot and they haven't ridden with loaded bikes before: we're taking this slowly as I want them to have a positive experience.
One disadvantage of having work bikes is that we don't own any cycling bags (why bother when you can chuck everything into the Bakfiets/Xttracycle?) Last night we were organising everything into backpacks and suddenly realised some local friends have been cycle touring as a family before and have panniers enough for all. After a quick phone call The Elder and Middle Son and I legged it off to pick them up. Now everyone is carrying their stuff on the bike instead of on their back which you'll appreciate makes a big difference.
I'm taking it very slowly here. It's important that things run as smoothly as possible as I'd really like us to ride a bit more together in the future. The older lads learned this year what they are capable of so double figures don't faze them any more but Beautiful Wife and Younger Son still get nervous if they have to do more than a couple of K's or there is a hill in sight, so I'd like this to be a good experience for them.
Also we discovered yesterday that Middle Son has left his lock at a friends house so we only have two locks between us for five bikes...
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