And the journey begins…..

Europe 2023

We have been waiting and preparing for this trip 4 long years. We are mainly here to travel to Lathi Finland and I will compete in the 70.3 Half Ironman World Championship on August 26, 2023. I originally qualified in Lake Placid New York in September 2019 by winning my age group and prepared to attend Worlds in Taupo New Zealand in November of 2020. The flight tickets and accommodations had been booked and then COVID hit. We all know what happened after that…… right? …..NOTHING.

Ironman eventually gave me a choice to defer to Utah in 2022 or to Finland 2023. We have never been to the Skandinavien countries, so I chose Finland. I earned other qualifications in the last couple years, but was able to pass my spot on to others, as I already held mine.

Here we are 4 whole years later. This trip serves multiple purposes. Giving it my very strongest competing amongst some of the very best triathletes in the world, while traveling part of Europe we have yet to explore.

Jörg and I heard so many amazing facts about the Skandinavien lifestyle and we are eager to come back to our own roots, growing up in East and West Germany, living a simple and minimalistic life, focusing on the true values so many have outgrown or never ever even experienced.

We began talking with our family still residing in Germany and made plans for a once-in-a-lifetime trip together. We chose to travel via motorhome while immersing ourselves into their cultures, nature and experience it all without major luxuries. We still feel lucky, because we were able to avoid the tent 🏕️ option. So we will be glamping versus camping.

Leading up to our trip we were reading books about Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway getting us very excited. Learning about HYGGE and SISU (more on that later) got more than just our attention and we are ready to discover and experience all of it.

August 17, 2023

Arrival

After a smooth Delta flight from Atlanta to Amsterdam, happily reuniting with all our luggage and 2 bicycles, we were picked up by family, driving to their Hometown in Germany, dropping bikes at the local bike shop to be safely assembled. Training starts back up tomorrow leading up to race day.

We will be traveling for 4 full weeks and we are excited to experience some of this journey one stroke, one pedal and one step at a time.

August 18, 2023

We got up early this morning to get to the local “Schwimmbad” for a training swim.

So fun to watch the locals, mainly elderly retired people, ride their bikes to the wellness center at 6 am to swim. They also swam in the athletes designated lane. Jorg and I managed to swim around them during our warm up. They ended up leaving before we started our Mainsets. It felt like the Autobahn in the water, sighting for going and incoming traffic, passing and moving over. They said they got dizzy watching us doing so many laps without stopping. LOL.

Visiting the local bakery for fresh coffee and bread (and a special treat reminding us of growing up in Germany), they asked us if we just got out of bed, judging our wet wild hair and relaxed outfits over our swim suits …..

We are now on the drive to Hamburg to pick up our (Motor) Home for the next 28 days ….