Traveling with children

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Traveling with children

Traveling with children
Children of men

Traveling with children is not an easy thing for motorcycle parents. But imagination and empathy help to turn it into a great adventure for both sides. Annebarbel Ehret gained experience on a trip to Sweden with her seven-year-old daughter Lotti.

Holger Hertneck, Annette Johann, Annebarbel Ehret

07/19/2000

The car in front of her is in the left-turn lane, it’s free, so she accelerates. Bumblebee, the left turn has changed his mind and rammed Lotti when turning right. Fortunately, the cars have thick rubber bumpers, so nothing happens. “Now all you have to do is buy a children’s motorcycle, then I can drive myself, Mama,” she exclaims happily when she comes running with her Legoland driver’s license. Unfortunately, I can’t and so Lotti will be with me as a passenger during our Sweden tour.
It is our first motorcycle trip together and we have planned it accordingly for children. Legoland in Billund, Denmark, is the first big stage destination. Buildings, animals or people, built from millions of Lego bricks, parts of the city or landscape, airports and locks, even the rides are integrated into the Lego world. It’s hard to part in the evening, but there are still two hours of driving ahead of us.
Over the next few days we will drive via Funen to Ladby – our third Viking site after Schleswig and Ribe. Disguised children and carers from a holiday camp are trying to re-enact the life of the Vikings there. While the girls spin, weave or collect herbs, the boys sharpen swords or watch the blacksmith. Combat training follows on a meadow, followed by care for the »injured«, and that’s not only exciting to watch for Lotti. We spend the rest of the day on the beach and I enjoy the view of the Storebælt Bridge, which we will cross to Zealand tomorrow. In the middle we will be 60 meters above the sea!
The next day we extend this crossing as long as possible, but of course no ocean liner can get through under the bridge. Then we stop by the Roskilde Ship Museum to study the seafaring side of Viking life. It’s amazing what they used to sail to Newfoundland and the Black Sea. I have Lotti’s sandals close at hand, and in a T-shirt and cycling shorts that she wears under her quickly stripped motorcycle suit, she can easily climb around the ships before heading to the ferry to Helsingør.
I roll onto the ship with a queasy feeling. I have no idea whether we have to lash the machine down somehow or specially park it. But nobody cares about us, and the front hatch closes. A nice gentleman helps jack up the fully loaded Honda CB 450 S, and before we even think about it, we are in Sweden – the crossing only takes 15 minutes.
What kind of button do I have to press to draw petrol out of the tap? Annoyed, I go to the cash register and ask. Oh, some pillars are for cash or check card payments, the others for fuel cards, the next for banknotes. Different countries, different customs, but now we know. With a full tank we drive out of Helsingborg on the E 4 and turn a little later to the east in the direction of Kristianstad.
“Mom, there was a campsite sign!” Before we started this tour, we got a two-way radio with a helmet. I explain the route to Lotti, and she then looks for the signs and shows me the direction. She is also on the lookout for campsites and, from now on, the right gas pumps. So she doesn’t “just” sit on the back, but also bears responsibility for our trip. Of course, the intercom also helps against boredom. In addition to singing and “I-see-something-you-don’t-see”, we discovered various games that we both enjoy while on the go. When guessing words, one person thinks about a word with up to eight letters, which she says to the other, apart from the first letter. Lotti discovers that different words can be created with the same letters, and we improve our spelling a little. Arithmetic games result automatically from the traffic signs. Before it was 85 km to Vaxjo, now it’s only 32. How far have we already gone? Sometimes we also tell sequel stories where each one of them is only allowed to say one sentence at a time, which creates hilarious stories.
Small streets lead us through typically Swedish forests, past lakes and small red farms with cow pastures. To the northeast of Vilshult we find a campsite by a beautiful lake, where the heat is wonderful to bear. Lotti befriends an older man who takes her fishing. While taking down my tent, I discover three mounds that a mole dug at night directly under her insulation mat. She woke me up about it, but I thought she was dreaming! Packing the countless utensils is now quick and easy. As soon as I am ready to go, Lotti climbs into her place between me, two Ortliebrolls and a backpack, where she sits safely even asleep.
The next day we follow a romantic natural road from the travel guide. With a small patch of grass in the middle, this path winds its way through the most beautiful mixed forest. When I discovered blueberries during a stop, Lotti got off the motorcycle as quickly as she wasn’t on the whole trip.
“There is a brown cow in the forest, Mama.” We are now on Road 122, in a deserted area where the forest is equally dense before and after the place-name signs. But it is only after a warning sign appears that we realize that Lotti has probably just seen a moose. In the evening Lotti buys a small moose sign for the Honda.
Vimmerby lies in front of us and thus, so to speak, the Mecca of our tour: »Astrid-Lindgrens-Varld«. Since February we have only read her books, Bullerbu, Pippi, Karlsson – Ronja is even in the backpack. This is where the stories come to life and are staged by actors. We’ll soon be in Krachmacherstrasse and discover Lotta’s and Aunt Berg’s house. Karlsson comes towards us, who is just going on a »sightseeing flight«. We follow him down the street in Stockholm to his little house on the roof, which has to be left by a slide, and end up near Pippi’s »Don’t-Touch-the-Ground-Parcours«. A little further the »Mattisborgen« from the robber’s daughter Ronja. A thunderstorm interrupts the whole thing and we flee to the Astrid Lindgren Museum. After all, we get to know the writer’s life so wet.
After 150 beautiful asphalt and gravel kilometers through eternal forests and a stopover in Granna on Lake Vattern, we continue north. After Motala we cross the Gota Canal, but things only get exciting again southwest of Askersund when we follow a narrow, bumpy strip of asphalt to the Tiveden National Park. Via a gravel road we reach the Fagerarn lake, but the red water lilies that made it so famous have already arrived. Pity! There is a hike through the Tived jungle for this purpose. Surrounded by colorful mosses and lichens, the designated path leads over slabs of rock and large boulders, past giant trees and on footbridges over boggy ground. Lotti almost feels the trolls and gray-gnomes, the rumblings and foggy elves.
The next morning our two-way radio broke. We miss our conversations and games and Lotti now has to pat me on the back if she wants something. Nowhere is a replacement to be found and so we drive in silence on the E 18 and the 45 to Åmål, where we can pitch our tent directly on Lake Vanern. The evening human-annoyance-not-game, which Lotti almost always wins, reconciles a little.
Then it gets really cold. On the way from Dalsland to Bohuslan I pull out warm gloves and fleece jackets and on the Bohus Fortress the storm almost blows from the battlements during our visit. 50 kilometers further at Åså on the E 6 it is slowly getting warmer, but the streak of bad luck continues. When camping we are assigned a place that can only be reached steeply uphill over rocks, scree and sand. Top! I lurch up there, hoping that the fully loaded machine won’t smear. That only happens later when she tips over on a slope from the main stand. From then on, the brake lever is bent and I know that I cannot lift my motorcycle on my own. In such critical cases, Lotti often helps. For example, if the automatically folding side stand makes parking a problem. Like on the hike to Kullaberg, where I strangled my luggage from the motorcycle that slowly tipped over in the sand, looked for Lotti rifles for the stand and we finally lifted the Honda up again together. Moments when the sweats don’t just come from the heat.
Tomorrow the ferry goes to Rostock and we play one last time on the beach in Ystad. We look proudly at the Honda and its elk sign. And think back to three weeks of teamwork that made some pit crews jealous.

Sweden: Motorcycle trip of a mother with daughter – tips for traveling with children

Almost all children like to ride a motorcycle. How long it stays that way, however, depends very much on the sensitivity of the parents. As soon as a child can hold their own weight ?? This is usually the case when you are around seven years old – and if the footpegs (if necessary, raised) it is old enough to ride on the pillion seat. And that’s where it belongs. Neither in front of the driver on the tank nor in a “child seat”. Safety experts strongly advise against the use of special brackets, as they make it more difficult for the child to be released from the machine in the event of a fall. Instead, wait until the child can hold on to themselves. Since its holding forces cannot be endured endlessly, you should start with short trips and then gradually increase the length of the tour. In addition, no child likes to stare at the leather back of their father or mother for hours, that’s the best motivation. So plan enough time for breaks and, if possible, scout out swimming lakes, playgrounds, McDonalds or other attractions before the tour – then long holiday trips are not a problem later on. Anyone who then includes the child with their own responsibilities in the tour, as in the previous report, is sure to win a great team partner. Everything about equipment can be found on the next page.

Sweden: motorcycle trip of a mother with daughter – minor actor

Children as passengers on motorcycles are increasingly enriching the streetscape. But unfortunately the offspring are often completely inadequately dressed on the pillion seat ?? it doesn’t have to be. Numerous companies offer high-quality motorcycle clothing, some of them for four-year-olds. From leather suits to waterproof textile suits, each with matching protectors, to functional motocross clothing, parents can get their little ones suitable protective clothing for their intended use (see table below).
If the costs for a new purchase are too high for you, you can contact BVDM-Leder-Verleih (Motorrad-Kinderland), phone 08321/99023, or Kombi-Verleih Trost, phone 05604/6444, which Rent out motorcycle clothing for day trips or longer vacations. In addition, many motorcycle clubs also offer rental clothing for children? a look at the local phone book is sufficient.
In the picture you can see:
Left: Leather jacket for 199 marks and lederhosen for 189 marks by Modeka; Hero gloves, 34.90 marks; Zac boots from Schlier, 169 marks; Caberg jet helmet Junior from Buse, 89.90 marks.
Middle: Maxy textile jacket, 299 marks, Gunny textile trousers, 199 marks, Bambino boots, 199 marks, HX 122 helmet, 199 marks, all from Ixs.
Right: Youth Zoom breastplate, 179 marks, Magma cross shirt, 79.90 marks, Magma cross trousers, 199.90 marks, gloves, 64.90 marks, everything from Buse.

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