We did it! We managed to bike, train, and travel around Germany, Italy, and France while working, during a pandemic, an invasion of a European country and an unprecedented wave of displaced people. 

We didn‘t bike as much as we thought we would. Lots of good reasons — weather, injuries, and work are the leading contenders. When we did bike it had the magic we have come to expect, you know, the sense of losing a decade or two when you discover you can go farther and faster on this conveyance than your own two feet? Also biking is just normal here, not heroic or exceptional. 

Given that we were living in these communities (Padua, Bologna, Savonnieres, and Munich) we saw how kids learned to ride, how grannies ride, how the dog and the groceries ride. It was a wonderful thing to see the Sunday training rides with a kid (3-5) bracketed by parents. And most people don’t wear special clothes — just the same ones they were going to wear. Same for shoes. In the US we can spend more time figuring where to ride, what to wear, and how to be seen than we do riding. 

Next we head to Berlin for several weeks of family, work, and a bit of hiking. 

Thanks for reading!