There you go, finally, we’ve sat down and finished our blog on this trip, this (small) part of our life: All in all, this is exactly what we needed: cycle, eat, sleep, plan tomorrow’s trip, eat, sleep, cycle… Yes, we would recommend it to anyone. Not fit enough? We don’t think this is a real issue. You adapt distances and speeds to your capabilities, just don’t be too ambitious about the distances you’ll want to cover; certainly not with kids: a short pee stop will easily take up to half an hour before you take off again. We’ve often been asked about the kids, how did they cope: being tired, hungry, sleeping in a new place everyday, not knowing where the next stop will be…. Well, honestly, we have fantastic children: rarely squabbling, complaining even less and being absolutely wonderful for each other. What else would you hope for? And, no, being 24/7 with them wasn’t tiresome at all. We seemed to just get in a kind of flow where each one of us knew his/her place and role. Fan-tas-tic! Anyone trying to get on a diet should try this to (okay, it’s a little radical…). Almost immediately after leaving we shifted to a new schedule Wake up: 8-9 am Breakfast: 9-10.30 Pack:10.30-11.30 Cycle:11.30-15 Lunch: Between 15-17.00 Dinner: Sometimes Good night, Sleep tight: 21.30-22.30 Combine this with 2 to 3 hours cycling, and you’re guaranteed to loose some excess weight. Don’t believe us? Look at the clock: Another thing is we can remember each and every of those 93 days on the road, having at least pictures or memories of each day. Every day was a remarkable in its own way. The blog was originally intended to keep in touch with family & friends during the trip. If you’ve stumbled upon it and have any questions about the trip, we would be happy to help you out. Thank you very much to: Alistair & Laurence, our mothers, Juf Judit (Miro’s...

As we just posted our ‘Final thoughts’-post, we’ll keep this one really brief. Under “Gallery” you’ll find photo albums for Belgium & The Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and Sweden. After having crossed Denmark a little too fast (we would have liked stay a little longer at some spots like the Teltpladsen, but had to family expecting us along the way) we took the ferry from Hirtshals (DK) to Kristiansand (NO). Finally, back in Norway. This is the country fell in love with in 1998. Where we got Kjeldebu from. This was somehow the part of the trip we had decided we would take our time to discover the country. Well, to be honest, we have been a little disappointed. For the Norwegian part of our trip we would be following the North Sea Cycle Route (NSCR). it’s the world’s longest signed international cycle route, passing through 7 countries around the North Sea. Preparing that bit was easy: it’s all pretty well documented and maps are easy to find. But that’s about it. Yes, we did have stunning views. And, yes, we did enjoy the very friendly Norwegians. But, as opposed to Denmark, there are no real alternative routes. It felt more like we were cycling as a goal not as a way to enjoy your trip. A Danish cycling couple we met in Drammen and while later again in Frederikstad expressed it really nicely: in Denmark you have a feeling you get to see more, than you would travelling by car. In Norway, well, you might as well go by car if you’re cycling for the views (although, see Hemmingway’s quote here). Maybe cyclists doing the NSCR want to say ‘I have done it!’. But for us, it isn’t our goal in travelling, boasting about the 2000 km we cycled. We don’t see it as a performance, we have nothing to prove ourselves or anyone else. It’s just our way of travelling. Just as natural as going for a walk… We had also hoped...

Planning the trip to Norway and Sweden, we were really looking forward to camp where ever we like thanks to the Right of Public Acces (Allemansrätten/Allemansretten). According to this right you are allowed to put up your tent nearly anywhere. But, as it turned out we didn’t really get a chance to camp in the wild in Norway, so in Sweden decided to use the Right and to test what possible the variations on the theme of ‘Wild camping’ had to offer. (Summary posts on Norway and Sweden are on their way) Here are a few spots we slept at. First, a Danish cycling family tipped us about sleeping near a Unesco site with Stone-age rock carvings in the region of Tanum. They were thinking about pitching our tent near the car parking. This is how we defined near that afternoon: The runes were really interesting and there were almost no other tourists visiting the site. As a bonus we had access to toilets and drinking water! So, happy with our first ‘rune-night’, we took our map and circled all the rune-sites in the region going South. This took us to Torsbo. An information board from the Torsbo council informed us about the site: “Torsbo is worth a visit not only because of its rock carvings and ancient monuments but for its nature and scenic beauty.[….]These pastures have been pastures have been restored and are kept after by the Council Administration. There are tables and benches and a more pleasent setting for a pastoral luncheon is hard to imagine.” Who could have imagined a better pitch? Flat lawn, toilets, water, no tourists. Our own private camping. Next, thanks to a fortunate meeting, we slept at Munkedal’s Kaserna. The second evening at the Kaserna, a big storm seemed to be coming up, Jonathan rushed (with lots of help from the kids) to break camp and take shelter on a outdoor stage used for plays in the summer. Just before the...

Here comes the sun (doo doo doo doo) Here comes the sun, and I say It’s all right … We’ve said this in a previous post, but we are so lucky with the weather. We were quite surprised to see the wonderful summer was a topic for headline news in several newspapers in Norway and Sweden. Travelling with this weather does make it all just a bit easier. Guess you don’t need any translation for...

Last year we have discovererd the joys of sleeping on new ultra-light-compact-comfy air matresses (Thermarest Neo-Air). For this trip we got some for the kids too. They were supposed to be the tougher models. They indeed didn’t get punctured, but this isn’t quite comfortable, is it. The internal barriers between the chambers came loose with a funny popping sound. Anyway, they soon became “unsleepable”…. After trying to get help from the shop where we bought them in Brussels (“Sorry, you’ll have to bring them in. You understand we can’t just send you new ones” – Thank you very much for the customer service after being a customer for 18 years!), we contacted the Thermarest distributor (Vertikal) for Norway. Thank you very much to Catharina at Vertikal for helping us out, calling different shops to check which might have our models! We 2 new matresses once we arrived in Oslo. Thank you very much too for the people at Sportsnett., where we collected them and left our old...

We have been meaning to finally send an update. First, the Denmark chapter is over, so we thought we might post a new album (Gallery > Denmark). We definetely have had a good time there. We will be coming back, maybe for a tour around Teltpladsen, we really liked that, but didn’t have the opportunity to test the sheds. Here’s a short list of other thing we really enjoyed in Denmark: – “Hej, Hej”: Everybody was just so friendly. It’s really nice to be greeted (“Hej,Hej”) by nearly all bypassers. – Rybrød: Rye bread, white bread, wholemeal bread, Kanelsegl. Wow, Jonathan had nearly (but not quite) forgotten how good the bread is in Denmark. And, oh, what a relief to get good bread after nearly a week in The Netherlands where all you get is mushy-mushy, soft tasteless bread (Though Holland does have quite a few other things to enjoy) – Milk, Yoghurt & Tilsit: Fresh milk, exellent dairy products, what a joy – Copenhagen bicycle city: Wow, tricycles (Jernhest, Bullit, Christiania, Nihola), workcycles (Omnium), city bikes (Avenue), singlespeeds even “Eco” bikes (Eco2Bike) and the cycling experience was really good too. Funnily, there are about as many cyclists as in any other town in the Netherlands, but it just feels different. More easy going, less get-out-of-my-way from other cyclists. And so much faster: cyclists zip round the city… The postmen had, of course, their own cargo tricycles. -The thing I like most being abroad is just going to the supermarket and see what kind of products they have or have not. Organic food is really integrated in Denmark, we didn’t find specific organic shops as we have but you can find a lot of organic food in the supermarkets. What was striking was the (not-organic, ha!) candy in the supermarkets, even the smallest supermarket had a really big rayon of candy and always a self-service with candy. (On the other hand, only few places we’ve visited had any kind...

In Denemarken hebben ze een netwerk van “teltpladsen” vertaald “tentplaatsen” waar wandelaars, fietsers en ruiters kunnen overnachten voor maximum 2 nachten. Het is voorbehouden aan reizigers zonder gemotoriseerd vervoer. Meestal zeer primitief maar het is variërend soms is er een toilet en één waterpunt. Soms zijn er ook shelters, dit zijn kleine houten afdaken met 3 wanden waar je onder kan slapen. Altijd gelegen in het groen op een mooie plek en voor maximum 25 DK (3,5€) per persoon maar soms ook gewoon gratis. Een ongelooflijk systeem! Ondertussen zijn we al op 3 teltpladsen geweest....

We’ve had quite a few people e-mailing us to know where we are now. So here is a page where you see it all: Follow the ne menu “Where are we (going)?” We´ll try to keep it updated.

A few days ago, in Ebletoft, we had the pleasure to discover we brought some pets on our tour. They don’t weigh a lot, we don’t need to feed them, but they are pretty itchy. They have been travelling on the heads of Dominique, Miro, Smilla and Nisse. Have you ever thought about how to get rid of them while camping? We neither. No problem, go to the pharmacy, book a room in a hostel to use the shower and that’s that. Isn’t it? Well, no luck: the hostel is fully booked, all the B&B’s too. So camping after all , on a ‘Teltplads’ (more on these in another post) with a toilet and one tap with cold water. Nisse was lucky she was being treated in the evening sun, but for Miro and Smilla it was already a little colder and Dominique that was at midnight. This is the result: The photographer of this picture was also sleeping at the ‘Teltplads’. He was there for a wedding…which explains why we couldn’t find a place to sleep. No helmets for a few days until we’re sure that we got rid of them. By the way, we have tested 3 licecombs for you: – The patented Nicomb2 with double metallic row of teeth – The double sided plastic one with wide and narrow gaps – The classic metallic one with long teeth. The results are clear: Plastic is rubish, Nicomb2 gets some out. For a better result, stick to the original. Feel free to contact us for a full test report (50 € + P&P, Thank...

After nearly 3 weeks of wandering around, the first cracks & tears start to appear. Our first victims were the childrens’ shoes on which we’ve had to sew some seems that had come loose. Then came the spray-flap that Jonathan had made which prevents water spraying up from the back wheel on to the trailer, getting Nisse soaked after a while. Here also a few hand sewn stitches got it back in place. In Holland Jonathan broke one of the retaining hooks on a pannier, scraped a whole into the bottom of that same pannier (it’s just hanging very low on the front racks of the Pinos) and Dominique broke part of a buckle. All in the same day. Luckily, since then, we haven’t had a drop of rain, not even a muddy puddle to ride through WE ARE SO LUCKY WITH THE WEATHER. Over night, coming from Holland, we gained 10-15°C. We did have some fresh northern wind on our first Danish leg from Copenhagen to Roskilde, but that was it. After a quite some time without breaking any parts, Jonathan managed somehow to rip a hook out of the back of a pannier: riding through high grass he hit a wooden fence pole. Again, we are so lucky with the weather. And as we hadn’t quite expected this weather, we left the big tube of sun cream in Brussels. We also didn’t really feel the sun as it has been windy. So on our second leg (Roskilde-Holbaek) Dominique got a sun burn on her left arm and Jonathan on his left foot (wearing sandals). Yes, it is silly. But, as it turns out, we are travelling aproximately either West around noon or North in the afternoons. So now it’s an extra layer of cream on our left...

We made it. Thursday night, platform 9,  in Arnhem we took the nighttrain to Copenhagen. No stress, we’ve done this tens of times before… We were relaxed: what could possibly go wrong, after all? A night train with a special bicycle space, we were on time, we were told we had a full 4 minutes to get on. So, no problem, is there? Well, the train was 10 minutes late, so by the time it was there, the conductor was all stressed out, pressing us to get on. When we opened the doors we remembered that night trains don’t  have double doors: impossible to get the bikes on with all the panniers on the racks. We started taking off the paniers when be blew his wisthle when we still needed to get 1 bike, 6 bags and the trailer aboard. The kids were on the train, we where on the platform. After a yell asking him to wait he came up to us aking how the heck this was all going to get on. From previous experiences we now know it is no help to start explaining, so we just nodded, folded the trailer up and stuffed it on the train. Thanks a lot to a Turkish passenger who helped us getting it all on. We were in, phew! Smilla was a little panicked and was already crying, afraid that we wouldn’t get on the train on time.  Once on the train, we saw the royal space we had on the wagon. So, well, we took all the space we needed. When ready, another conductor came by:”Bitte die fahrrad konnen sie nicht so setzen. Nicht gut! So, so, nicht so…” Ehm euh, sorry, “Das is nicht moglich” is what we brabbled in our best German. “Ja, das mussen sie”… Ehm well, ok we’ll give it a try. As it turns out, he was really nice after we duly followed his German orders. Here’s the second version. Everybody off to...

Normaalgezien hadden we voorzien om vorige week al te kamperen in Zilvermeer maar gezien het weer verkozen we een trekkershut. Smilla bleef aandringen om in de tent te slapen dus riskeerden we het deze week wel, hoewel het weer niet helemaal aan onze kant was. Ik sliep de tweede nacht met mijn jas aan (Dominique). Het was ‘s nachts 2 graden. Onze tent heeft onze gezinstest doorstaan: ruim, hoog, licht (5,5kg), 2 kamers, perfect! Terranova laserspace...

Le journal de Miro est en ligne sous le menu Gallery – Miro’s logbook is online under the “Gallery” menu Omdat Miro zijn schrijven (schoonschrift)  moet oefenen, schrijft hij iedere dag wat we die dag gedaan hebben. We hebben samen met juf Judit afgesproken dat hij telkens een half blad of 7 à 8 lijntjes moet schrijven. Maar dat was in de breedte van ons boekje, in de lengte is dat iets minder: hopelijk is dit ook goed voor zijn juf! Want eerlijk is eerlijk, Miro heeft er niet elke dag echt zin is, de inkt en de woorden moeten soms uit zijn pen gesleurd worden door juf Mama. Voor zaterdag en zondag mag hij rusten: 1 keer schrijven voor beide dagen is ook goed. Elke dag dat we een internet verbinding kunnen krijgen zal je hier de nieuwe teksten van Miro kunnen lezen (trouwe volgers van de blog, pas op, je krijgt niet automatisch een bericht als er ee nieuwe foto op komt te staan). Na meer dan 2 uur nachtelijk werk is het eindelijk gelukt om Miro’s dagboek te op de website te krijgen. Er zijn nu 2 plaatsen waar je zijn dagboek kan lezen onder Gallery zal je “Miro’s dagboek” en “Miro’s dagboek link” zien staan. Het zijn dezelfde foto’s, maar het is een beetje puzzelen om te weten wat beter werkt op een echte computer. Laat maar weten wat het beste...

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  Leaving Caernaefon for a 42 km trip to Criccieth.