The Packing Post

If you are planning a trip of any sort, you've probably encountered a mountain of advice about packing, solicited or not. If you're reading this, hopefully you're doing what I did: researching in excited anticipation of your trip! Unlike most bloggers, I do not currently have any sponsors or affiliates. All items here are provided simply because I purchased them myself.

1) Dry shampoo. I had heard about the wonders of dry shampoo but didn't purchase any until my last haircut before the trip. My stylist taught me how to use it and I bought a travel-sized spray can. I loved having it in my bag! I don't style or even blow-dry my hair. Still, when traveling there were days that I had to let my hair go unwashed a little longer than I would've liked, or had dinner reservations at the end of a day of cycling in the hot sun. Dry shampoo was an easy, no-hassle way to spruce up fast.

2) Cycling shorts. This is an item I didn't pack but should have. This trip was structured around cycling, after all, but I imagined leisurely rides with lots of stops. Honestly, that is mostly what we did, but several consecutive days of leisurely rides adds up to a sore rear that really could've used some cushion.

Reeuwijkse plassen, South Holland, Netherlands

3) Crocs. Perhaps I am biased as a Coloradan, but these shoes were objectively great for the trip. They added color to monochrome outfits, were classy enough for restaurants, passed for slippers at Spa Gouda, and functioned like flip flops at the beach and in locker room showers. I ended up using them far more than the ankle boots I packed for cooler weather and hiking.

Can't wait to get back!

4) Collapsible water bottles. It took us the entirety of our trip to figure out how to get free tap water at restaurants and other establishments in the Netherlands. We never figured out a way to access free potable water on trains. So these Platypus soft water bottles served us well. When empty, they cram easily into even overstuffed bags; great for airport security.

Overkill? Probably. But we lost two of them during the trip.

5) Compression socks or leggings. Jet lag wasn't too bad for me after our arrival, and I give partial credit to my compression leggings. If you plan to take long rides, they'll be useful for muscle recovery, too. They are light, take up very little space, and can be paired with a dress for versatility.

6) Travel towel. I doubted whether we would use this, and almost left it at home. About halfway through our trip, we moved it into our small packet of items to take everywhere, no matter the circumstances. It turns out The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy was right, one should always know where one's towel is. We used it as a blanket for a tired kid, a giant handkerchief for a nosebleed, a wipe to treat road rash, a shawl in unexpected cold, a picnic blanket and—yes—a towel. That said, one travel towel was plenty for our family of four; there is no need to pack one per person.

7) That's it. Seriously! It is nearly impossible to pack too little for a trip to any first-world country, especially during a warm season. As a friend assured me before my trip, almost every problem can be solved with a passport and debit/credit card. Here is a list of things I'd take again that you'll find on any packing list, but even these could've been purchased at our destination(s) without much hassle.

• Zip-off pants
• Rain jacket
• Swimsuit
• Sun hat
• Minimum quantity of clothing in quick-drying material. Try to pack only two tops, one bottom in addition to the cycling shorts and zip-off pants, and a dress for us gals. 4-5 pairs of underwear. Your compression socks are probably the only socks you need unless you never wear sandals.

We were able to pack one backpack per person, plus a packable bag for the whole family to use for overflow, laundry or shopping. I bought most of our backpacks at Arc Thrift, but splurged on this awesome convertible backpack pannier for my spouse. We averaged about 15 lbs. per person and in retrospect, I would've packed even lighter!

I over-packed.

Family Biking Denver Hits Holland!

Our family spent a month of this summer in the Netherlands, at a farmhouse in the province of South Holland. We spent much of our stay entirely car-less, using bicycles and buses to get around. After failing to find a workable trail-a-bike option, we went with a rear-mounted seat for our five year old. Our son turned eight on our trip, and utilized a kids' bike with 24 inch wheels.

The first thing I would like to say about family biking in Holland: it is not for novices. I was expecting everything to be flat, what with all the canals and sea-level spaces. I quickly learned that flat landscapes do not require flat infrastructure. Some of the canals are higher than the land surrounding them, and canals are everywhere. Consequently, steep climbs up to narrow bridges occur frequently. If you're thinking about taking a family cycling trip in the Netherlands, try to find bridges near home that you and you family can use for practice. Once you get good at crossing one at a time, try crossing together and finally crossing in opposite directions at the same time. If you give your kids less than a foot of space on this final maneuver and you both stay calm, you're ready to cycle rural Holland!

You'll ride your bicycles over a bridge like this.

When you aren't navigating bridges, you'll probably be on a bicycling path or bicycle lane. It is important to know that motorized scooters are allowed in these places as well as on the road, and the drivers often explore their options while going the speed limit. That said, once I got over my surprise at being passed on a bicycle lane by a miniature motorcycle, I noticed that the drivers were overall quite courteous and usually gave us more space than passing cyclists.

Cycling through a nature preserve (time lapse).

So, on your left you'll have traffic of some sort— either cars on a street or scooters on your side of a hedge— and on your right you'll often have a steep hill down to water. That doesn't leave much room for error in terms of steering, but I was surprised as anyone that our kid actually seemed to do better with these constraints than he did on the wide streets at home. Maybe it was the separation from opposing traffic, maybe it was that he couldn't let his mind wander too much, maybe it was the clear delineations between the asphalt bicycle space and everything else, or maybe it was simply the innate adaptability afforded by childhood. Regardless, we never had a kid careen down a grassy slope into the drink (thank goodness).

A typical trail in Holland, with a canal on the right.

The South Platte cycling trail in south Denver.

Our son seemed in his element during Utrecht's evening rush hour. The flow of cycles felt a lot like the flow of water in the canals; as long as you knew which way you wanted to go, you just followed that stream of cyclists, did what they did, and ended up where you needed to be.

An eight year old embracing Utrecht rush hour. Not a car in sight.

Utrecht's famous bridge, as seen from a cycle.

 Most children ride in seats (as our daughter did) or in the famous dutch bakfiets. Dutch students receive bicycle education in fifth grade (which I imagine simply solidifies what they have observed from their parents' cycles for several years). Certainly some cycle independently before then, but almost all do so at fifth grade or older. Packs of cycling teens were very common, and acted much like teens in the U.S. Once, one said "bonjour" in an unfriendly voice to a friend of ours as we cycled. As it happened, our (American) friend was fluent in French and answered back in a fashion that left everyone laughing and the teen somewhat red-faced with shock.

Our setup: youngest in a seat on an adult bike, oldest on his own bike.

Despite the surprising challenges, cycling was a fantastic way for a family to explore Holland. We rode through huge nature preserves that allowed cycles but not cars. Even for distant destinations, there was always a fairly direct cycling route. Once I got used to the unspoken customs of lowlands cycling and the large quantities of cyclists sharing the space, I realized that good cycling infrastructure doesn't have to take up a lot of space or fight with vehicular traffic. A lot of cyclists can utilize a fairly narrow path as long as they are proficient.

Bikes on a ferry = happy transportation wonks. The apple does not fall far from the tree!