Father / Child Camping

A month or two ago, a co-worker of mine mentioned his annual trip into the Fränkische Schweiz with his friends and neighbors for their annual Father / Child camping trip. I had wanted to go camping with Quinn for quite a while, and this seemed like the perfect first camping adventure for Quinn.
When my co-worker invited me, I accepted the invite and started the planning. I got a kids book about camping (to introduce Quinn to camping and to try to excite him a bit) as well as his own kids sized folding camping chair.

There were 25 fathers and over 40 kids in total. Needless to say, Quinn and I were overwhelmed, but had a blast. He also liked getting to eat with his hands (even though he still ate with plastic utensils...).

I even brought his favorite stuffed animals so he felt at home in the tent.

The campsite was beautiful, but a bit far from toilets, which caused some issues when Quinn had to poop (I got to carry him, running, to the toilets). He really did love peeing in the bushes.

On Saturday, there were lots of events planned, but nothing really for 3 year olds, so we took off to the next village where there was a 'natural' pool (looked basically like a lake next to a stone cliff) and a bobsled track (Sommerrodelbahn). He loved the bobsledding, but the pool was a bit cold.

He didn't get much sleep on Friday night, and was constantly in motion with the other kids on Saturday. He was wiped out, and actually slept until 9am the next day (a record, I think). I was also very grateful for this long morning, since Quinn woke up at 6am the day before.

All in all, the weekend was a blast. Quinn had a great first experience camping, and I had a great time as well with him and the other fathers / kids. It is also very nice to get to spend so much intensive time with Quinn, and I'm looking forward to when Emily can join us.

Let's go Ride a Bike...II

Quinn made huge progress on his bike on Saturday. Even though the bike is an inch or two too big for him, he has figured out how to brake without falling down. The first few times were a bit rough, but after what seemed like a full day of riding, he really has it down now.

Of course, I was doing my part, running behind him, just in case I needed to help him. He didn't need my help. He can ride fast...much faster than I can run.

Needless to say, I'm pooped. Quinn is stoked that he's riding his bike. Now if he can only learn to start on his own, he'll be perfect...and this, I'm sure, will come soon. If he doesn't, I'll get in great shape running behind him.

I'm just happy that he had a good time.

P.S. Today I asked Quinn if he wanted to ride his bike while I went running in the forest. He said yes...and we were in the forest for about 30 minutes (with a stop to look a the wild pigs). I had a great jog, and Quinn seemed to really have fun on the forest paths.

He looks super cute on his bike...all proud of his newfound freedom.

Family Vacation on the North Sea

While I was in Denmark riding, Eva met up with her parents on the North Sea island of Borkum. The fact that her parents were already planning to be there for two weeks (of which one of those weeks we had planned to join them) made the logistics for me (getting me to Denmark faster) and Eva much easier.

Overall, Eva was on the North Sea for two weeks, and I was there for the second week. The final few days we were in Ostfriesland visiting some of Eva's childhood friends.
No huge surprise here, Emily really likes ice cream. She's finally figuring out that we get to eat the 'good stuff', and she wants to try it. No more rice cakes for Emily.

The world cup was in full gear, and Germany was playing really well...unfortunately losing to Spain in the semifinals. Quinn and I sported our jerseys prior to the Germany games.

At low tide, we caught crabs...lots of them.

The North Sea is not known for amazing weather. At any moment, it can begin to rain and storm. Thankfully, we had amazing weather for two weeks...only having two days where it was not really 'bearable' to be on the beach.

The beaches are optimal for kids, and Emily really liked being in the sand.

Pic with Oma and Opa. We stayed in a newly renovated house, which is a historical landmark since the house was the first on Borkum. One night Eva's dad and I went to the bar next door to watch the Holland game, and we stayed a bit later to listen to the group of local folk musicians sing...which was a very nice cultural touch to the evening and the trip.

@Rainer: nächstes Mal, trinke ich auch ein bisschen weniger Kultur ;-)

Emily even smiled when her feet were in the cold waters of the North Sea.

The water was pretty cold - cold enough to keep me out of it most of the time - but Quinn had a great time jumping over the waves.

Emily loving her pretzel. If this picture doesn't look like Eva as a baby, then I don't know what else does (other than the real thing).

Our three days in Ostfriesland were amazing as well. The weather was hot and dry, and Quinn and Emma spend most of the day outside running into the kiddie pool. With the long days, the kids were jumping into the water even after dinner.

Of course, there has to be ice cream as well.

All in all, it was an amazing two weeks. I got my bike tour and a week on the beach, and Eva got to spend two weeks on the beach with her family (including a week with me).

More pictures of our time in Ostfriesland will be posted later: Marc (who was also with us) is a very good photographer, and took most of the pics. When we get those, we'll post them.

Now it is back to work and back to reality...but at least with our batteries fully energized.

The Finer Things

It doesn't happen often, but when it does, it is a very beautiful thing.

Sometimes, after Emily is finished with her morning or evening bottle and after I burp her, she is so tired that her head becomes so heavy that she lays it on my shoulder and falls asleep. As she's sleeping, she breathes so heavy that is it is a slight snoring.

A very beautiful thing...and very precious.

Cute Kid Moment

Background: Eva (who has actually lost weight after her second pregnancy) comes out of her room in a recently washed-for-the-first-time pair of pants. They don't fit and are too tight.

Eva (to Rob): These pants just don't fit anymore...they are too tight.

After hearing this, Quinn proceeds to the laundry room, gets my tape measure, and begins measuring his Mama. Somehow, this produces no response from Eva. Had I have done this, she would have lopped off my head.

Annual Bike Tour

As the time came to start planning the annual bike tour, somewhat by convenience and somewhat by desire to adventure outside of the Alps, I decided that this year's version would be a solo event in Denmark and Sweden.


Since we had already planned to go to the North Sea with Eva's parents, it was relatively easy for Eva to stay there an additional week (with her parents on the North Sea) while I was riding in Denmark. Since Denmark borders the North Sea, it allowed us to travel most of the way there as well. Logistically it was easier. I was excited to see Denmark and Sweden in the depth that you can only do when you are on a bike.


Day 1: Flensburg - SonderborgAs I planned the tour, I wanted to make sure I got to see some of the 'must sees' in the country. Since it was in the middle of the summer, the days are long, allowing me to ride as early as 4am and as late as midnight, taking longer breaks in between to see the cool stuff.

It took me a while to find my out of Flensburg, which was a much nicer town than I had imagined (Flensburg brings shivers to most Germans since this is where all of the 'points' for traffic offenses are held). While trying to get out of Flensburg, I heard the cars honking, and this could mean only one thing: Germany scored a goal (we were in the middle of the World Cup, and the German game started when I arrived in Flensburg).

I pulled into the next Biergarten and actually saw the replay of Klose's goal.

For much of the first kilometers to Sonderborg, I was riding along the sea coast (East Sea / Ostsee) There is tons of wind in Denmark, hence tons of windmills. I was hoping that I wouldn't have too many days against the wind and that it wouldn't rain too much. Thankfully, the weather and wind was perfect...except for one day (to come later).

Virtually every danish building and home has a flag of some sort flying.

My first stop was the Sonderburg Castle, which was a bit of a disappointment, but the city was picturesque and provided a nice break before I had to ride on to the hostel outside the city.

Day 2: Sonderborg - Helsingör

Day 2 started out at 4am, and I was on the road by 430am. Breakfast was a few cold slices of pizza from the previous night's dinner.

I was at Augustenborg Slot before 5am. Such a castle is amazing to witness so early in the morning when the whole village is asleep and the tour busses haven't arrived yet.

I made it to Fynshav in time to catch my 6am ferry ride. I had all the time in the world to see the things I wanted to see and make my way to Helsingör, just north of Copenhagen, to visit our friends Keith and Manu.

I made some unplanned stops to see some cool churches.

One of my 'must sees' wea the Egeskov Slot (Castle). I made it there by 830am...but was closed until 9am. It is a golden age castle with a full on moat. From the fence, I could see it, and it did look impressive (do you see those hedges!), but not cool enough to wait the 30 minutes and pay the 20 EUR to get in. This castle was a full half day event...and I had some riding to do.

Despite being at least 50km out of the way, I decided to go to Ladbyskibet, where the best and most in tact Viking Age Ship Grave lies. This was definitely one of the highlights of the trip, and worth the extra kilometers (which I was swearing at on my way back due to a severe headwind.)

After riding back to Nyborg, I boarded the train to cross one of the world's longest bridges (possibly the longest). Shortly after getting back on land, I finally found Slagelse, where a rebuilt viking ring fortress lies.

Then, I had to press on to Helsingör. I had already 130km under my belt for the day, and I ended up getting to Keith and Manu's at 8pm, clocking in 230km for the day, a personal record.

Needless to say, I was pooped, but the dinner that they made on the grill hit the spot and the beer hit the spot!

1000 Dank Keith & Manu: es war super euch wieder besuchen zu können, auch wenn die Zeit ein bisschen knapp war. Danke! Danke!

Day 3: Helsingör - Skagen

After such a long day, I was in no mood to set an alarm. I just wanted to take it easy and have a nice breakfast with Keith and Manu before taking the ferry over to Sweden. Since it was about 230km to Göteborg (where I was to catch the ferry back to Denmark) and since the almost 4 hour ferry departs only twice a day, I decided to take a train for the first 130km of Sweden to allow me to 'easily' make my ferry at 4pm.

What I forgot as I was casually having coffee with Keith was that the train took off only once an hour. All of a sudden, I was in a hurry, which became a theme for the day.

Keith helped me pick up 'Wienerbrod' (which is a long super yummy danish (Plunder) and raced with me to the ferry. Made it just in time! Whew!

The ferry ride was pretty easy...just about a 15 minute shuttle across the sound. I had only 15 minutes to get to the train station, buy my ticket, and get to the train. With the train station near the port, I didn't think it would be difficult. I started to panic a bit when I didn't see any signs for the train station and nothing looked like a train station.

I actually asked for help twice...and made my train with 2 minutes to spare. Above a Swedish windmill and below a milestone (kilometerstone ;-) of some sort.

I had 5.5 hours to cover 100km - and since I had a strong tailwind and great weather, I was not too concerned about the time, and I thought that I could stop in Varberg to visit with our friend Tanja, who was vacationing there with her children. We weren't able to touch bases beforehand, which was probably a good thing, since I arrived in Göteborg with virtually no time before the ferry closed its doors.

It is amazing how a wrong term and a bad map can eat up hours on the road. When I got to the ferry, dripping with sweat, the gal behind the counter looked at me with that 'sir, we can't let you board' look on her face. All I could muster was a 'please'.

She let me buy a ticket, and I was the last passenger on the ferry. The security guard that escorted me on the ferry was super kind, and he even gave me the keys to the shower facilities (for free!!). I wasn't planning to shower, but after almost 6 hours of riding in the blazing heat, I'm sure all of the passengers were thankful.

The ferry was huge, and they had a full on buffet. Needless to say, I had to tank up a bit, and the buffet wasn't much more expensive than a sandwich and a coke, so I got a table and ate and drank more than my money's worth.

I only got to see about 100km of Sweden, but it was a worthwhile sidetrip. It was a shame that I didn't get to bumble around in Göteborg a bit more, as it looked like a very beautiful city (from what I could see in my scramble to the ferry). I hope to visit Sweden again soon...perhaps on next year's tour.

After landing back in Denmark, I still had about 50km to cover to get me to Skagen, where I was to stay for the night. The hostel had a key reserved for me, so I wasn't (finally) in a rush, so I enjoyed the final 50km (which turned out to be almost 70 since I went further north to Grenen).

Since summer was still at its peak, I didn't have to worry about lack of sun. Even starting in Fredrikshavn at 7pm, I had plenty of light and time. Unfortunately, it rained a bit and was a bit overcast, but the nature was nonetheless amazing.

After making it to Grenen, I parked my bike, and took the 30 minute walk to the tip of Denmark (pictured above), where the East Sea (Ostsee) runs into the North Sea. I was hoping to catch sunset, but with rain, it was mostly overcast. It was still very cool to be virtually alone at the tip of Denmark at close to midnight and to still have some light.

A picture of the lighthouse from the tip of Denmark. I must have snapped 20 pictures trying to catch the light in its rotation.

Day 4: Skagen - Rebild

Let's be clear: every bike tour has one bad day where you either don't feel great, don't want to ride, have flats, or have bad weather. Day 4 included 3 flats, 2 defective CO2 canisters (to fill up the flats), a butt that was hurting from 400+ km that I covered in 2 days, cold, rain, and a severe headwind (probably between 20 and 30mph (40-50 Stundenkilometer)).

There were some blue skies, which you can see as a backtrop to this church near Skagen, but most of the rest of the day was struggling with every kilometer and hoping that the road would change direction to give me a break from the wind.

There were some pretty amazing wheat fields, which were even more beautiful as they were swaying in the wind.

I did take the time to stop in Rudolfi Domkirke in Aalborg. By this time, I was pretty beat, the weather was just cold and windy, and I had to find a place to stay for the night. I was about 70km short of where I wanted to go. Under normal circumstances, I could have made it, but by this time, I just wanted this day to end.

Proof of the wind.

Eva helped me find a hostel in Rebild, which 'forced' me to only have do go another 40km. The area was very pretty (forested), and the reception building (below) was amazing, but the rooms themselves were like army barracks.

Day 5: Rebild - Norre Nebel

With my worst day behind me, things would only be better. I was now moving southwest through Denmark, and I had a few more sights to see.

After waking up at 4am to get an early start, I made it Fyrkat, the best preserved viking ring fortress, by about 6am.

What I thought I would see is from the pic above, which was merely a recreation of the fortress, which dates back to the 800-900's. Silly me to think that such a thing would survive over 1200 years in tact. The real fortress is pictured below. Not exactly what I was expecting, but impressive nonetheless. It was also nice to see it before all the tour busses arrived.

The recreated 'lodge' was also a nice touch. Still looks old to me...

Of course there is an area where you can buy tickets and coffee. They weren't open yet, so I just walked in and took a few pics.

...then I was on my way to Silkeborg. I had planned to go to the museum to see the Tollund Man (a very old, very well preserved remains of a viking era man), but by the time I arrived in Silkeborg (below), the cafes were beginning to open for lunch.

The weather was perfect for looking in the old city, and when I sat down at a cafe for lunch, I forgot all about the Tollund Man (literally). I had already seen a few old churches in Silkeborg, and in my delirium, thought that I wanted to see churches in Silkeborg. By the time I was out of the city, I remembered the Tollund Man...

I ended up changing my planned route a bit, and took a train to the coast and rode another 70km to Norre Nebel.

Day 6: Norre Nebel - Bremen

Day 6 had two main highlights: Ribe and Mögeltönder, both very old, very beautiful villages.

I arrived in Ribe around 9am (after 3 hours of riding), just in time for the town to start waking up and for me to stop in a cafe for a cup of joe.

I had to only go about 130km today, so I had plenty of time to see a lot of Ribe - the first city in Denmark, which also celebrated its 1300th birthday this year.

This was the view from my seat in the cafe.

The Ribe Domkirke is the highlight of the village. From there, it was off to Mögeltönder, a story-tale village that looks like it hasn't moved into modern times.

This street in Mögeltönder, which leads up to a castle, is considered (at least by the Loney Planet) as the most beautiful street in Denmark. The cobblestones are very cobbled, and the buildings have that beatiful historical look.

I walked up and down the whole street, stopping at a cafe for food and drink. By this time, it was getting very hot, and if I was lucky, I could catch the 3pm train to Bremen, where I planned to spend my final night before meeting up with Eva, the kids, and my inlaws on Borkum on the North Sea for the next week of vacation. I especially liked this house in Mögeltönder, with the roses and the weeds growing on the roof. The thatched rooftops are relatively commen in Denmark - especially the historical buildings, and the weeds add a nice touch.

As with other days, I ended up racing to the train station, making it just in time. There was another train the following hour, but when you are trying to catch a train, you never want to have to wait an hour in a small town...

Day 7: Bremen - Borkum

This really doesn't count as a day...I just had to ride my bike from the train station to the port in Emden to catch my ferry to Borkum.

Overall, I covered almost 1000km in the 5.5 days of riding. While the type of riding was different than the other tours in the alps, it was a simply amazing trip. I got to do what I had dreamed of doing: riding through a country, catching the cool things to see along the way, and getting to see a lot of a country very intimately.

The Danes are very kind and helpful people. I never felt in danger, and this country of over 14,000km of bike paths are very bike friendly.

It would have been nice to have had some more time in Sweden. Perhaps this was just the appetizer for next year's tour. Or perhaps I will fulfill another life's dream and ride in Ireland.

While I'm not too sure where I will do next year's tour, I like the style of this year's tour. As soon as my butt stops hurting from so many miles in the saddle, I'm sure I'll start dreaming about next year's tour.