Breathtaking

Carrying one stuffed elephant, six panniers and two tents, Paula and Lorenz Eber set off from Athens, Greece on two tandem bicycles with their eleven year old daughter, Yvonne, and her thirteen year old sister, Anya. Their dream: to circle the world by bicycle, raising awareness of asthma and the world’s desperate need for clean air. Pedaling in an unbroken line through Europe and Asia, along Australia and the South Pacific and then across North America, the Ebers promoted a carbon free, environmentally friendly way to travel, encouraging others to try new, more sustainable and harmonious ways to interact with new places and peoples.

Breathtaking is the exciting, hilarious and inspiring true story of their adventures. Readers follow the Ebers as they raise their daughters around the world, teaching them to cherish and respect our environment and other cultures. School is conducted outdoors on mountaintops and in historic castles. Dinnertime consists of strange international foods cooked on a simple backcountry stove in a meadow. And the responsibilities of parenting have been expanded to include hunting for an English copy of the latest Harry Potter book and holding a memorial service for one of Yvonne’s most treasured (and only) possessions: a Polish bunny thermos. But the journey is also a test of the family’s strength and endurance. As the family pedals further and further away from home, they struggle to work together through increasing hardships. They face a 100 degree heat wave in Italy, drug smugglers in Russia, a snowstorm at the Great Wall in China, and even the bite of a poisonous molokau in Tonga. To succeed, they realize that the greatest challenge they must face is not the journey without, but the one they must undergo within themselves.

Paula Holmes-Eber, Ph.D. is an anthropologist, professor and the author of six previous books. She has published dozens of articles about cycling and adventuring as a family, including frequent contributions to Adventure Cyclist and the League of American Bicyclists Magazine. Paula is director of Bike for Breath www.bike4breath.com, whose purpose is to inspire people to travel by bicycle, promoting clean air and a healthy environment so that all of us can breathe.

Lorenz Eber, P.E. is an aeronautical and civil engineer. In addition to his passion for cycling, he is a private pilot, a sailor, and a photographer. His photographs have appeared in numerous books and magazines, including Time Magazine and on the cover of Adventure Cyclist.