End of 2020, I decided to make work of digitizing my childhood trips. We have analogue pictures (and the original negatives) and often a daily notes: we used to write these on really thin paper and send them home weekly, to reassure everybody we were still alive and kicking. They were mostly written by us children, so they sometimes have a strange focus – you will find a decent count of the frequency of ice cream treats, for example – but also funny details. We always travelled by bike and had tents for camping and people were always amazed to see us. In the beginning simply because we were so young, but later because we travelled in areas that were difficult to reach and not long open for western travellers: the Baltic States, Bashkortostan and Uzbekistan. To us, however, it always felt perfectly natural and normal.
Here you will find an overview of these trips: if the description is in grey, I still need to find and sort the pictures and digitize the journal. If it’s in black, you can click through to read the day by day description of the trip, with pictures.
1988 – to Cambridge
Leaving from home by bike, we took the train and boat to get to Felixtowe. My oldest sister was 9, the youngest 7, but the three of us rode our own bikes and carried luggage.
1998 – Le Mans-Le Lude-Le Mans (France)
During the school summer holiday, my sister and I hopped on the bike to cycle 50 km to the small town of Le Lude, that we picked because it had a castle and a camping ground. Our first trip alone, it was happily uneventful.
1994 – through the Ural mountains (Bashkortostan)
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1992 – from Vilnius to Riga (Baltic States)
1990 – Ireland
1986 – ??
1984 – Voeren (Belgium)
My oldest sister was 5, so old enough for a bike of her own, but my younger sister and I still rode on baby seats on our parents’ bike.
1995 – from Tashkent to Buchara (Uzbekistan)
It took some complicated administration, but finally we were able to fly to Uzbekistan and do a cycling trip there, from the capital Tashkent to the old city of Buchara. The history here, of a land by the old Silk Road, is truly ancient. The people and infrastructure still recovering from USSR influence.
1993 – from Vilnius to Saint Petersburg (Baltic States)
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1991 – Hungary
1989 – ??
1987
Febe writes 