I never considered not getting a bike and cycling in Beijing. What I didn’t expect was how enjoyable it would prove. Here’s why:
Read MoreAnna Hartley is an Australian writer.
She has lived in Paris and Beijing since 2011.
Her work has been published in The Washington Post, France 24, Forbes Travel Guide, The Houston Chronicle, The New Zealand Herald, The Vancouver Sun, the Beijinger, and Babbel Magazine.
My Life, On A Bike
/Studies have found that people who cycle are smarter, more sexually attractive and better at assembling furniture than those that don't.
Read More"Wheels of Fortune" - riding around Greece on a wooden bike
/Published in PrimoLife Magazine June 2017
In September 2016, I rode a wooden bike for 3 days through Athens and the Greek Islands. Jump in the saddle with me and explore this magnificent landscape in this most unusual way.
Read MoreParis on Wheels: a short cycling guide
/Published in לאשה Laisha Magazine, May 2016
Paris and it’s surrounds are perfect for family and couple bicycle rides. Enjoy these three fun routes and explore the City of Lights.
Read MoreHow to be the kind of tourist tour guides love
/The silly, gif-ridden listicle that became my most-read post gets another lease on life!
Enriched with input and interviews from some of my many guide friends, this insider piece about being a "good tourist" has been reworked for The Washington Post.
Read More(un petit) Tour de France: Riding From Paris to le Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte
/One of the hazards of being a bike guide is that lots of your friends will also be bike guides, and will invite you to go on crazy rides to strange places with very little planning.
It's awful.
Last month, we went to the Vaux le Vicomte estate, 41km from Paris as the crow flies.
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This second pregnancy is nothing like my first. I am calm, cocooning. I do my exercises, occasionally even yoga. I have an ample supply of comfortable maternity clothes and a giant (and I mean giant) horseshoe pillow that encloses and immobilises me in a firm hold at night. Sshhh. It whispers. I got you.
I am on top of my medical appointments. I take my vitamins and monitor my blood pressure. I have been registered at the maternity hospital since around the third month of my pregnancy. My husband and I spent about 15 minutes discussing a baby name, decided, smiling, and haven’t wavered since.
I am, in short, having almost the opposite experience as my first pregnancy.