Childish Weeks: Göteborg

Our sleeping place in Göteborg was about 5 km outside the city limits on the shore of Lilla Desjön lake. It was the perfect mix of being close to the city but not having that many people around. There were picnic benches, a fireplace and a toilet. In the day, some people came around by bike, by walk or by boat, but at night we were alone. The only downside of the place was the long uphill to get there when returning from the city, but at least that kept us fit on the rest days. We decided to have two…

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Childish Weeks: Hindås–Göteborg

From Östra Nedsjön lake, some people decided to change our original route along the train line Borås–Göteborg and instead divert north via Floda and then Gråbo. It had turned out that for the children cycling themselves, any amount of car traffic was making the ride harder. Staying motivated the whole way was already a struggle, and when the route was not so beautiful and adventurous, when they had to cycle in a straight line, when they couldn’t spontaneously stop to pick some berries that they had spotted on the side of the road, motivation was even lower. The rural roads…

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First Days of the Childish Weeks: Borås–Hindås

On the evening of the 1st of August, the Biketour arrived in Borås for the start of the Childish Weeks. In this experiment, which we are doing for the first time, the coming two weeks of the Biketour have been organized to especially focus on the needs of children. Some parents and their children had already arrived the night before and found a suitable campsite in Borås. Others arrived over the coming days. There are now 11 children with their own bicycles and one toddler who is travelling on a child’s seat, along with around 20 adults on the tour.…

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Cycling with a toddler in Sweden

I cycled for a few days alone with my 2-year old child on my bike with the special bike seat construction through Sweden towards the Biketour. I wanted to gain some experience and develop a routine before joining the group. It was the first time for my child to be on the bicycle for so long in a single day, the first time for them to camp in the wild, and the first time for me to biketour with a child. Despite having a lot of experience travelling on the bike alone and taking tools and equipment for every possible…

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How to Bike with Baby and Baggage

In our FAQ under “Can my child come on the tour with me?”, we list a few ways to transport a child on a bicycle: A child’s seat, a trailer, a cargo bike, a tagalong or a tandem bike. I was part of writing that text a few years ago before I or anyone else present had any idea about children, let alone how to travel with them. Now I want to biketour for the first time with my now 2 years old child and join the Biketour for the Childish Weeks. With my own experience and hearing from other…

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From Lyon to La Voulte with a visit to the gorges of the river Doux

Leaving Lyon was more difficult as expected. One of our trailer attachments had broken in half, and a shop selling this piece was not in sight. So some of us went to the construction store in the early morning to find anything that could be useful as a temporary solution, and just when we had succeeded improvising a replacement part, we realised that an important part of the trailer had actually broken apart and needed to be fixed as well. Navigating out of a big city is always difficult, and the Via Rhona long-distance cycle route along the river Rhône…

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From Besançon to Lyon along the river Ain

The group left Besançon with one day delay due to heavy rains. The route planning team decided to take a more hilly but also more picturesque detour towards Lyon along the River Ain, passing through its steep rocky valleys with its enchanted mossy forests, passing many waterfalls and lakes on the way. Close to Thoirette we took a rest day on a grass field down by the river. Not many people pass by there, so we could have a circle (meeting), a few swims, time to relax, some bike fixing, a visit to the “cow piss” waterfall close by and…

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Squatted villa, rescued food and public art performance – Biketour in Vigo

Our sleeping place in Vigo was the amazing Quinta de Carminha squat, a big mansion so luxurious that it has stone lions greeting you at the entrance. But not just luxurious from the outside, it also greeted us with a hot shower, a big kitchen, big communal spaces, an internet room, and some beds to sleep inside. Our main activity on the second day was an evening action in the city centre. We dumpster-dived lots of food, picked a public square, and presented the food there to give away for free. The signs say: “This food, which is in perfect…

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