Cycling to Kings Worthy: June 3, 2007

The first major trip out on the bikes, a three-mile ride over to Kings Worthy, across the major A road, along some nettle-lined paths through Abbots Worthy, and back to the pub. Refreshments were needed before tackling the hill back to Winchester. Lovely day, good use of gears, saw some bunnies, and checked out some houses. The photo features PJ under the church gate at St Swithun's, which was an adorable little church en route. Nice.

Bicycle No. 23: Thursday 17 May, 2007

This is my new bike. Look! It has gears -- 21 of them! And brakes -- 2 of them! However, it doesn't have a mudguard or a stand. But it's purple -- so yay! I went out for a pootle around this evening, and realized that you can't get very far here without having to use a main road. Or cycle up a hill. Thank goodness for those 21 gears, although it's still exhausting. So far, the car drivers have been pretty good, giving me a wide berth, letting me pass, that kind of thing. But it's still scary and just generally more difficult. Not just because there aren't cycle paths, but because all the roads twist and turn. You hit far more blockages -- be they t-junctions, traffic lights, roundabouts, or hills -- than you do in the Netherlands, where it's all straight, flat, and fast. Still, it felt good to get out there.

Bicycle No. 22: Sunday May 6, 2007

Hurrah! We have bought our new bikes, and they're currently being fitted with mudguards and rear brackets. It was extremely odd riding a bike that had TWO brakes and 21 gears -- I need an instruction manual to cope with those -- but they should make the steep incline of Canon Street a silky dream. No pictures of them yet, so here's a picture of two chaps on a rather nice bike route along the Test Valley, out near Houghton in Hampshire. All we need do now is buy a car that will allow us to get out to these idyllic spots.

Bicycle No. 21: back in April

I know, I know -- it's been almost a month. But what a busy month! We've sold a house, moved country, established a new home office, and are now attempting to buy new, shinier bikes with lots of gears. We're still not quite there yet and the fact that there are hills (!) here is a little offputting, but bikes will be had. However, I already have my first bicyle-related bruise -- and it's a corker. On Monday, we headed over to Hargroves Cycles to check out their stock. As we approached the shop, I tripped up over an unexpected kerbstone and went down hard on my knees. The following morning, it was a deep red-brown bruise. Irritatingly, my final bike bruise of Amsterdam -- same leg, lower calf, thanks to a recalcitrant bike stand outside the gym -- had only just faded. I am destined to carry a permanent bike blemish, clearly.

However, here is a picture of a lovely bike that couldn't inflict any damage on me as it was safely locked up inside a hair salon on the corner of the Leliegracht/Herengracht back in the home of bicycles.

Bicycle No. 20: Friday 13 April, 2007

Sniff. An inauspicious date indeed. The last bike ride to work. Locking up my trusty steed in the basement bike room and ceremoniously handing over the keys to Bill for safe-keeping. This bike has served me well. I inherited it from Erin when she returned to the US. Temporarily abandoned for a newer, shinier bike when its chain locked up on me, I came back to it when newer, shinier bike was thieved from our building's bike racks. Fixed up, it was good as new -- even if the seat did swivel slightly and the brakes were somewhat spongy. It was too heavy for British roads and lacked the 21 gears necessary to cope in a country with hills, but I loved it.

Bicycle No. 19: Saturday March 31, 2007

Bikes on the Rozengracht also make handy dog-tethering posts. Not sure where the owner was, but Fido here didn't seem too worried about being abandoned -- not as worried as I'd be if PJ chained me to a bike on the street. Ahem.

Bicycle No. 18: Friday March 16, 2007

A visiting US colleague recently asked if anyone in Amsterdam wore cycle helmets. Simply put, no. OK, you occasionally see some small children wearing them, but the attitude in the photo above is far more common. Does this mean, then, that people get killed or injured left, right, and center, she asked? Again, no. Much of the time, bikes are carefully separated from cars and pedestrians; for the rest of it, cars drive far too slowly (thanks to tortuous one-way systems and speed bumps) to do much damage even if they hit you. And, I guess, nearly all drivers are probably also cyclists -- or their parents/siblings/spouses/children/friends are. And, if a car hits a bike, it's automatically the car's fault -- regardless of how stupidly the cyclist was cycling. A great incentive to drive carefully, and one that should be adopted elsewhere.