“It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle.” ~Ernest Hemingway

I had the pleasure of riding (albeit indoors) with a lovely group of cycling friends recently.  One couple will be heading to Cuba on a bike tour in February – their first ‘organized’ trip.  They have traveled the world on their own on their bikes on many occasions.  Another couple recently toured Italy.  Another rider had toured parts of California.  Another, Nepal.

I have been lucky enough to tour many places as well.  It is my very favorite way to travel and explore another country (or my own).  Why?  Just as Hemingway stated – you see and remember so much more than if you are using other modes of transport.  The wild strawberries growing at the side of the road on Cape Breton Island, the details of a rice paddy in Viet Nam, the smells of a local cooking a meal (anywhere).  The wind and the rain and the sunshine.  You can ride with others, or on your own.  Riding brings a freedom that is unlike any other.  When you travel by bicycle – it’s the common language of those traveling by bicycle too, and a source of entertainment by those who aren’t.

“It would not be at all strange if history came to the conclusion that the perfection of the bicycle was the greatest incident of the nineteenth century.” ~Author Unknown

 “The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man. Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish. Only the bicycle remains pure in heart.” ~Iris Murdoch, The Red and the Green

LiveSplendidly!