Unable to remember the last time my family and I went on holiday, I was very much looking forwards to a few days away, not having to sit at a computer and – hopefully – get a bit of sun, to boot. Well, we certainly lucked out on the sun. It’s been a heatwave all week, with every day being 27c. And aside from one short thunderstorm on Tuesday, there has barely been a cloud in the sky. Nuts, really, as a typical UK resident would pay a lot of euros to enjoy such weather in the Canary Islands.
This blog being about cycling, it may seem a bit odd that I’m rambling on about my holidays. Well. For this holiday we went to Centre Parcs, which for those not familiar is a sort of cluster of woodland inspired chalets set in a “forest” and cars, whilst not banned, are largely forgotten for the week. This makes it ideal for safe kiddy cycling. And safe(r) adult cycling, too.
Now, unfortunately, I don’t have a way to transport my bike about other than taking both wheels off and shoving the whole lot into the boot / back seat. This was not possible given the boot and some of the back seat was taken up with luggage, cool boxes, toys, swimming accessories and lord knows what else. But no big deal, the good folks of Centre Parcs are quite happy to rinse you dry for 50 quid or so to borrow one of the most heavy duty, robust, poorly indexed contraptions you have ever clapped eyes on. Behold:
Anyway, a bikes a bike, right? Right.
We rented three bikes. Two of the same mountain bikes, and a kids fixie for our eldest. One of the two adult bikes came with the trailer attached so I could chauffeur our youngest around. She absolutely loved it, as I think anyone would.
Daily Activity
If you follow me on strava, you may have noticed I’ve moved swiftly into the “strava wanker” category this week. Seemingly if I’ve moved, it’s been logged on there.
There’s been two reasons for this:
- I am still aiming to hit my weekly riding goals;
- I’m genuinely interested to know how active I’ve been.
This isn’t a typical Chris beach / pool holiday. My preferred Getaway is an all inclusive, very lazy, enjoy the buffet kinda thing. I’ve definitely over eaten, and over drunk this week, but given I’ve been situation at least a kilometer from the centre of the Parc (see what I did there) I’ve been forced to either walk or, more preferably, cycle whenever I’ve needed to do pretty much anything.
It turns out all of this activity does add up. I think I’ve done about 45km of riding this week, as some activities I didn’t capture and some I captured late.
Cycling in the woods (it’s not a forest) certainly has its unique aspects. There’s quite a lot of wild life meandering around, including the above ducks or whatever birds they are, that certainly weren’t open to changing their ways of life just because some selfish corporate types had built housing all over their natural habitats. Having to stop and let 30 big birds cross the road was certainly different, and when I wasn’t near the restaurants at feeding time, I’d even occasionally meet the ducks, too. Arf Arf.
It was definitely more fun exploring the place via bike and, having been before to both this site and the one up in the Lake District, makes me wish I’d got a bike on prior visits. Lesson learned.
Massage Therapy
One other thing I did this week that I don’t normally do was to get a massage. Opting for a full body massage I got worked over on Wednesday by a firm handed masseuse. Honestly I thought she’d say my legs were knackered, but she said whilst they had tension, the real area of concern was my back, neck, and shoulders.
Doubtless this is due to my garbage posture and spending 8 plus hours a day at my computer. I do wonder if my cycling position helps or worsens this problem. Anyway, the noises, pops, clicks and crunches coming from the various knots in my back lead me to believe more regular massage once home could be hugely beneficial. I’ll be looking into this.
Anyway, that’s about it from me for this break. I’m waiting on the kids to wake up and then it’s time to finish packing and head back home. We’re about 2 hours away.
Covid has, of course, impacted the whole affair. There’s many changes since last time we were here. Some have been beneficial such as reduced numbers in the pool meaning shorter queues for slides and what not, others less so such as no room cleaning or fresh towels. It’s a changed world.
My biggest takeaway has been how much fun is to be had cycling with my kids. Once home I’m going to try once more to find a bike shop that has kids bikes in stock. We really struggled earlier in the year but maybe things are looking better now. For now I think I’ll take one last ride up to Starbucks and treat myself to a last day latte.