November 2014

Our Fabulous Trip

by Lois and Sonny Stern

We are certain that many of you had wonderful adventures this past summer and this fall. This is our story.

We have been on about 25 organized bike trips to many parts of the world over the past 25 years. We have ridden our bikes all over France, the north and south of Italy, Sardinia, Corsica, Germany, Switzerland, Prague to Vienna, Ireland, Costa Rica, a Safari by bike in South Africa and Botswana, Vietnam and Cambodia, China and of course the good old USA. We have seven grandchildren. When they reached the age of 16-17, we took them on a European cycling trip. The first two a grandson and granddaughter traveled to Switzerland and Florence. The next two also grandson and granddaughter went to Tuscany and Florence. This year, we took our last three grandchildren, all girls. They chose Spain since they study and speak some Spanish. This has given all these kids a chance to explore Europe and get exposed to the wonderful world of cycling. Our experience has been that a bicycle is a perfect way to travel. Walking is too slow, a bus or car goes too fast, but a bike covering 30 to 60 miles a day is perfect and you can really see the country you are visiting. Briefly, we did not know what to expect on this trip since we had never been to the northern part of Spain or the Costa Brava. We started in Barcelona and ended there. Those of you who traveled to Barcelona know what a busy beautiful city it is. After a transfer north, the first day was rainy but we rode in the rain on a bike trip. We did get soaked! After that the weather was great for six days. We had no idea that the Pyrenees and Catalonia was so beautiful, as beautiful as Switzerland, if that is possible. The second day we were greeted by a six mile climb which was a true test but every climb is followed by a great downhill and we had many downhills on this trip. We crossed into France four times during this trip since the mountains border Spain and France. There is no passport control in the EU. Along with biking, we had many other activities. The children visited a potter and actually made pottery. We visited the Dali Museum in Figueres, the kids also went rock climbing; all of us went kayaking down the River Rio Ter for two hours; took cooking classes and on the final day had lunch aboard the three sail Pepa Bandera II. We sailed for four hours and went swimming and snorkeling in the warm Mediterranean. While most of our trips have been with unaffiliated groups, led by bike outfitters, this was a private trip because of our needs for special dates since the children obviously needed to start school. We stayed at great hotels and had wonderful food and had two great guides.

If anyone wants more information on a bike trip, feel free to give us a call.

The whole bike trip group with our guide in the front

Sonny, Lois and their granddaughters

The three girls

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