European Swings by Bicycle

admin — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:29:29 +0000

On June 1, 2009 we landed in Paris, France and assembled our bicycles in the airport. Over the next two months we biked from Paris to Barcelona via Lisbon, hanging 15 red swings along the way. Traveling by bicycle challenged us to logistically plan how to hang all these swings and still make it over obstacles like the Pyrenees. From Paris we shipped rope ahead of ourselves and resupplied in Pamplona and Lisbon. We typically found scrap wood on the side of the road, cut it, painted it red at night and found somewhere to drill the holes the next day. Holes were drilled by mechanics, carpenters, a radiator repairman, a model boat builder, and many others- all of whom played a pivotal role in creating each swing. This repetitive act of making added an interesting rhythm to our journey. By the end we hung 7 swings in France, 7 in Spain and 1 in Portugal.