Biking with kids

When we lived in Denmark, we used to bike everywhere. I had a baby seat on the back of my bike for Alexander... and when he wasn't in it, it was a perfect place for grocery bags or the bouquets of flowers that I would pick up from the local florist. I think I even helped move one my friends by carrying stuff on the back of my bike. My bike was a big part of my day to day life.
Where we live now, I have to say, it is not very bike friendly for little kids and, despite still having my baby seat on the back of my bike, it became more challenging to take 3 boys out for a ride. Now that they are getting older, we are starting to re-discover biking: for the boys, it represents freedom and being able to explore the neighbourhood with their friends. For us (the parents), it is a fun way to exercise.
Last summer, Andreas started to take Oliver out to learn how to bike and now he is ready to ride to school... with parental accompaniment... it still is not the best biking neighbourhood but that is another story. Anyway, this morning, I biked in to school with Oliver. He absolutely loves it and is so proud to put his bike helmet on his hook outside his classroom. Nicklas bikes with us... but way ahead... and with his lunch box in my still-present baby seat. Alexander has, for years, used his bike to get to his high school. It always means that he can play football with his friends after school and not have to rush to catch the bus.
So nice to get back to biking with kids....

Happy Friday to you all xox

Then..... Alexander in his seat of honour

And now...... The boys' own bikes

Saving my bicycle... locally!

When I lived in Denmark, I had a great Everton retro shopping bike. Unfortunately, European brand bikes are were not well known here and, mechanically, hard to maintain. So, my lovely bike stood in our garage, making strange noises and unable to change gears properly. Boo!

The other day, I was listening to a radio call in show where the topic was cycling in Montreal. Firstly, over the past 10 years, Montreal has gone from a very bike-unfriendly city to a happening bike place. Downtown is filled with cycling culture and many Montrealers proudly cycle year-round... even in -40C and snow (this will be another blog topic sometime). Anyway, the radio show inspired me and I did some bike-repair-research. All this to say that I found Allo Vélo.... my poor bike's saviour! They not only sell Danish/Dutch style bikes.... they fix them.... at a good price.... and have coffee.... ALL AT THE SAME SHOP! ;) Heaven! The guy didn't even looked perplexed when he took a look at my bike! All he said was- cool- and told me that he would call me back when my bike was fixed! 

Love this place! Just so happy at the chance of getting my bike back that I wanted to write about it. No commercial exchange took place... just loving a cool Montreal shop!

Euro bikes AND coffee!

Cool vibe

Glad they were on my list of things to do today!