3 on 1 Bike

“Fill your life with experiences, not things. Have a story to tell, not stuff to show.”

Our Story

We are Katharina, Carsten and Anna. From 2021 to 2023 we spent traveling by bike through 18 countries.

It was a lifetime adventure and we want to inspire other families to explore the world with their kids and create amazing memories.

It is the greatest legacy we can leave our children.

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Who

Carsten

Carsten loves traveling and having new adventures. He is a social entrepreneur.

Katharina

Katharina loves reading and dancing. She is a scientist.

Anna

Anna is crazy about chocolate and watching movies. She is a student.

Why

       

Carsten and Katharina have been happily married for 24 years. Instead of living two parallel lives, they wanted to go on an embarked life journey and live one life.

       

During a trip to Mongolia while Anna was 5 years old we experienced how she grew, developed an interest in foreign cultures and learned a lot of new things. Now she is able to experience the world with her whole heart and collect memories.

       

Carsten and Katharina worked for a long time in their jobs. Carsten`s goal was to have an organization he founded that does not depend on him. Katharina quit her long-term corporate job and looks for a new professional challenge.

How

We stopped our rental contract and sold our furniture. We only kept 15 boxes at our friend`s cellar. We even wrote our last will.

Katharina wanted to go by caravan, Carsten wanted to walk! We met in the middle and chose the bicycle - a tandem bike that can be attached to Anna's bike - 3 on 1 bike.

We saved money for the trip but also lived on a small budget of approximately 10 € / day. When you leave central Europe, this is feasible. When you have time, traveling is much cheaper than staying at home.

We had a tent which gave us a lot of flexibility. Rarely we stayed in hostels. ⅔ of the time we stayed in people's homes. Either they invited us or we knocked on their doors. We experienced how people really live and had a deep exchange.

Ana did not go to school. However, we sent her to local schools whenever we stayed longer at a place. The experience was always positive. She learned a lot through the journey by many different people and speaks now English fluently - we call it SCHOOL OF LIFE.

Where

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Q&A

Here you can find questions of people interested in our journey. If you have a question, use the contact form.

Katharina: People and not locations made the difference. Anna: People in poorer countries were often more friendly than at home. Carsten: People were so hospitable. I will try to do the same for foreigners when I return.
“Either you break up after this journey or you are inseparable”, people told us before we started the trip. 3 on 1 bike means that you cannot cycle away and you are always together. After being together for 24 years as a couple we still discovered new sides about each other. We found new commonalities but also more differences. It felt like different layers of an onion. But we always tried to talk about it.
We lived out of eight bags for the whole trip. Before we lived in a 75 m2 flat, now we will move to a 50 m2 flat (for three people) in Basel. It will be a community, cooperative housing space with less personal space but more common areas that you share with each other.
We will live closer to the people in our cooperative housing project and we wish to live closer to nature. We also will continue traveling not only in our mind but also by bike during the year whenever possible.
When we were in a really difficult situation, we received help from an unknown source. We learned to trust that all will turn out fine.
It takes time to realize what you have learned and it will be a process. You will start to miss things, when you do not have them anymore. The challenge will be to incorporate all the learnings in our life.
Anna only knew a few phrases like “Hello, my name is …” or “How are you?”. She learned English simply by listening and trying it out without attending English classes. She understands the most and can communicate without holding herself back.
When we return, life will be more structured than traveling. But we know that spontaneity and flexibility bring a twist to your day to day life and you need to give it room.
Individually we dreamed about breaking out of the system and having an adventure. When you do not travel alone, you have to make compromises but you have the beauty of companionship and love around you - and this is worth it!
I do not look forward to getting up early for school but I want to see my school friends again. It is more fun learning in a group than alone.
Chocolate khachapuri
Our most favorite food was in Italy and Iran. We found exceptional women cooking such tasty dishes.
In every country you get vegetarian food. When people invite you as a guest, they often want to serve you something special. It means a meat dish. However, we always found a solution.
In Iran we had to do the Visa application three times (2 times by our own, third and successfully by an agency). Otherwise there were no problems with visas at all. The majority did not ask for COVID vaccination.
We had one situation on Crete after taking a “shortcut” that we had to cycle a very rough road in the dark and had a little accident. Fortunately, we did not get hurt. On our last day in Iran we faced a police control with a less friendly police officer leading to the decision to leave the country.
People will make the difference. So we will trust more, spend more time talking to people, listening and have good conversations. There should also be space for the unknown and therefore have less meetings.
In most cases we did not have a local SIM card. When we had locations with WiFi access we used it to keep in contact with family and friends and inform us about the place. We did not plan in advance. Most challenging part was to say goodbye to people and places that you became very fond of.
We will create a website and try to publish new insights on a regular basis.
Carsten will cycle back together with another friend. But he will take shortcuts by boat and bus. Katharina and Anna return 2 months earlier to celebrate the 75th birthday of Anna`s grandfather.
We had all weather conditions from sun till hail and snow. ⅔ of all days we had sun! 14% we had rainy days which led to spontaneous help or simply resting days.
We tried to keep our expectations low, otherwise the likelihood of disappointment is quite high. What we experienced we could not have planned. Only when you are really open and have enough time, there is enough room for these miracles we experienced.
Sometimes I was lucky to find a real book somewhere in English or German. I prolonged my membership of the Basel library two years in advance. Therefore, I was able to read books online on my mobile.
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