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Passport Voyager: Bike-love inspiration from Amsterdam, Cinque Terre, Copenhagen, Paris, London, Milan, Florence, Rome, Vienna, and elsewhere

Passport Voyager, a Monterey Bay native and the daughter of Bicycling Monterey’s founder, travels a lot for her work. She’s biked in places we’ve never seen, and she’s often shared with us bicycling photos from her travels. Perhaps you’ve spotted her skirt guard photo in our Bike Fashionistas post.
She is currently visiting Vienna, Austria, where she’s enjoying an Unhashtag Vienna experience: in essence, savoring the present moment in her immediate surroundings. A solo traveler, when she checked in to let Mom know she’d arrived safe and well, she was appreciating the transportation infrastructure. Get a glimpse of it in her video greeting to me, directly below.

Now a world traveler, she also has a lot of love for her home county. Special thanks to Passport Voyager for her responsible tourism tips about Big Sur. (For our Big Sur biking tips, click here.) 

To see Passport Voyager as a trailer-riding toddler towed by her grandmother on the Monterey Bay Sanctuary Scenic Trail, click here, then scroll to end. That’s also little Passport Voyager in our current Bike Month post.


Below Passport Voyager’s video check-in for Mom from Vienna,

scroll this post for more of her bike-love photos!

Copyright reminder.

To view her photography on bicycling plus a multitude of other subjects, follow her on Instagram: http://instagram.com/passportvoyager

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My daughter, @passportvoyager, a Monterey Bay native, travels a lot for her work. Of course whenever she’s walking or biking, she lets me know how the infrastructure is! Today she is in Vienna, Austria. 🇦🇹 She is “savoring the present moments” while in Vienna, not posting there, but I imagine will post tips and photo/s about her trip to Austria after she returns to U.S. Meanwhile, see a collection of her bike pics from other countries at https://bit.ly/PassportVoyager .#Vienna #ViennaAustria #TheWorldIsYourClassroom #MontereyBay #Unschooler #sustainable #transportation #infrastructure #bikepath #CyclePath #publictransportation #ecotourism #ecotravel #travel #walk #pedestrians #bike #bicycle #cycling #environment #trees #treelinedstreets #ArborDay #BicyclingMonterey #mothers #daughters #KeepInTouch #ViennaNow #traveltips #BikeVienna

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I am lucky. And I know that. I grew up with supportive, encouraging parents and friends surrounding me, telling me I could do anything I set my mind to. But as silly as it sounds, I’m not sure I ever believed them. As I get older and push the boundaries of what I think is possible in my life, I realize that they weren’t kidding. No, I can’t have it all. But if I work my tail off and believe that I’m actually worthy and deserving of having the kind of life I want to lead…who knows what might happen? ✨ As the wise Oprah once said, “You get in life what you have the courage to ask for.” And I’m starting to figure out what I want and how to ask for it (and more importantly, how to work for it). In the midst of stressful and uncertain times, I have a glimmer of hope that I didn’t used to. And I’m finally excited to see what’s around the corner. (Don’t get me wrong, I’m also pretty anxious and freaked out and uncertain, but that glimpse of good hope at the end of the tunnel outshines those negative thoughts. Most days!) ✨ I want to know: what are you planning? What are you excited about? I’d love to hear all about it!

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Rainy Florence.

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Been feeling like I'm in an actual time warp lately! How is it already the second week of August? Once August hits, I feel like the temperature should automatically drop, the boots and scarves should come out of hiding, and I should get to start binge-watching Christmas movies and baking pumpkin bread. 🍁 Or maybe I should just move to Copenhagen, where it's apparently my ideal weather year-round! When I was there in June, it was absolutely perfect – low 60's and cool every single day, even in the height of summer. What can I say? I'm just a cool weather kind of lady. I guess you can take the girl out of Northern California, but you can't take the Northern California out of the girl! (Okay that was a mouthful.) 🍂 Anyone else feeling 100% ready for fall?!

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I think the thing I'm most proud of in my life is the fact that I've made the decision to travel solo and be fearless about it. I know so many people (women especially) who often say, "Oh, I could never do that – traveling alone sounds so scary and lonely!" And I get it. It's a big undertaking! And society tells us that we should be afraid to do things alone as women. Especially travel. But I have been so many places solo over the years, and I've truly never had a negative experience! 🌍 The key, in my opinion, is being prepared and informed. When you plan ahead, make choices to help keep yourself safe, and approach a new place with confidence, the odds of something happening go down tremendously. Of course, there are no guarantees (in life or in travel) and sometimes bad things simply happen. But I genuinely believe in the power of planning and educating yourself – and then going out and DOING IT (whether it be travel or anything else)! We are stronger than we think, and far more capable than society has taught us we could be. Traveling solo has shaped me more than an entire lifetime of schooling. There is no substitute for learning about yourself and the world in a new environment. If you're scared to try traveling alone, don't be! I encourage you to pick a place, buy a ticket, and just try it. You might absolutely love it! 🌍 Have you ever traveled solo? What was your experience like and where did you go?

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Oh Amsterdam. 💜

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"I'll never know, and neither will you, of the life you don't choose. We'll only know that whatever that sister life was; it was important and beautiful and not ours. It was the ghost ship that didn't carry us. There's nothing to do but salute it from shore." – Cheryl Strayed 💕 It's so easy to compare our own lives to the lives of others. To hold our path up next to someone else's and see where we went wrong and they went right (or vice versa). But what good does that do? You aren't living their life. You are, for better or worse, firmly planted on your own path. Yes, you have the ability to make changes, to improve, to learn. But your life is fundamentally yours, and your choices have led you here. Embrace it. Make all the peace you can with it. Because when all is said and done, the most beautiful thing about all of it is that it's YOURS. Own whatever mistakes you've made, celebrate the joys and the accomplishments, and when you feel like you've let yourself down, fail better next time. As the wise Mary Oliver once asked, "What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" Make those plans, embrace the chaos along the way, and own your life. 💕

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I find myself posting less and less frequently, both here and to my blog, as "real life" continues to take over and consume most of my waking hours. I'm in awe of the people who post daily and blog daily and schedule out their tweets for the next 6 months. I not-so-secretly want to BE those people. But for now, until I figure it all out, I'm doing my best with the time and energy I've got. Because sometimes, that just has to be good enough (right?) ✨ Every time I look back at my photos from Copenhagen earlier this summer, it feels like a dream from long ago, not something that actually happened just a few weeks back. I'm baffled by the passing of time, every year it seems to go by faster, and I finally believe what everyone older than me always said when I was younger: it goes by so fast, enjoy it. I'm looking for ways to manage my time better so I can tackle some of the things I really want to do: explore my city more, see more plays and music again, travel more, do more with my blog and photography…just do more overall. (And also do less at the same time, which makes no logical sense, I realize.) ✨ Anyone else in the same boat? Trying to work smarter and do more but also make space in their life for periods of quiet and less busy-ness?

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"Choosing to be curious is choosing to be vulnerable because it requires us to surrender to uncertainty." -Brené Brown ⌲ In today's political climate, connecting with other cultures and refusing to isolate…it almost feels like an act of rebellion sometimes. I have to admit that I am genuinely ashamed of the way my country is presenting itself to the world these days. It's hard to articulate just how embarrassing it is to live in a place that's so backwards in so many ways. ⌲ Choosing to stay open and vulnerable and curious about the world and those outside our own tiny "bubble" is indeed an act of vulnerability. I hope we all continue to push those boundaries, to learn and grow, because we have to be the ones that lead now.

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It's not until you're wrapped up with friends and family or on the road traveling for a few weeks that you realize just how much time you spend on social media / the internet in general. I am always shocked (and frankly, baffled) by how much time I spend on my phone and laptop scrolling and scrolling and scrolling and…you get it. 🚲 Every time I take a moment to recognize how much time I waste doing these things, I am forced to acknowledge that a) this time could probably be better spent elsewhere and b) I need to streamline my online time. There are so many things I want to do offline (and things I need to do offline to increase my online productivity). I can't wait to get back to New York and have a few weeks at home to hunker down and find a better way. 🚲 If you have any tips for increasing productivity, improving time management, or decreasing your mindless time online, I'd love to hear them!

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"The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease for ever to be able to do it." -J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan 🦄 London is a place for me that inspires dreaming and wild ideas. Every time I find myself there feels like a fresh opportunity for a new story, a new adventure. My favorite thing to do in London is simply stroll around, dreaming up alternate lives, being inspired by the new and old things that surprise you on every corner. It holds a special kind of magic for me, and I'm not quite sure if that's because it's still new and unblemished in my mind, or if I simply hold a certain reverence for it. Either way, it is always a welcome escape and I can never quite get enough. 🦄 Where do you go when you're in need of a fresh perspective or place to dream? (It doesn't have to involve hopping on an airplane!)

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I just did something a little scary, something I've been meaning to do for a very long time…I finally changed my Instagram handle! To some, this may seem like a super simple task, but when you're taking a lot of other future changes into account, it takes a lot more work than you'd expect! Thanks to my wonderful IG friends (especially @pagesoftravel for the name inspiration!) for the brainstorming and encouragement, I've finally switched over and am now officially @passportvoyager! (Because, let's be honest, no one knew how to spell my full name anyways.) 😜 Lots of exciting stuff in the works, which I'll try to include you in as much as possible, and high hopes for the future of my little corner of the Internet… Thanks in advance for your support as I get used to my new IG home and work hard to make lots of changes happen. Your comments and love never go unnoticed, and I appreciate every single one of you for sticking around! 💕

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Take me back to Paris!

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A rainy day in Amsterdam. Oh how I miss it!

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Bikes. Everywhere.

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Obligatory canal + bike shot.

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Related information on the Bicycling Monterey website includes “Other Languages: Resources for people who bike.”

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For a taste of Passport Voyager’s non-bicycling photography, and travel tips, see “A Magical Day in the Scottish Highlands with Rabbie’s Tours” on passportvoyager.com. As you check that out, you may also enjoy her selection of songs from Scottish musicians: http://open.spotify.com/user/sierradehmler/playlist/4wxDGVFxxp3ZuJyO4lEu3Z?si=QyoqyyFMS2yuSG-ulBUZ4g

Before shifting her career focus to travel, she worked in the music industry and earned a B.A. in Music Management and Communications from CUNY-Baruch. From childhood, e.g., concert mistress for Monterey County’s Orchestra in the Schools, to young adulthood, e.g., performing at NYC’s Rockwood Music Hall, she’s a musician herself, and we dig her taste in music. Enjoy!

Short link to this post: http://bit.ly/PassportVoyager

This post was published on 27 April 2019. One or more changes last made to this post on 15 March 2020.

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