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.

Bicycle No. 17: Monday March 12, 2007

It's bin day on the Keizersgracht -- a day when a bike becomes a removal lorry. The canny Dutch, reluctant to leave a great (i.e., free) bargain behind, start loading up items onto their bikes. This old boy has got himself a nice glass cabinet, complete with light fixture in the top, has secured it to his bike, and is now going to wheel it home. Hurrah for proactive recycling! (PJ will be most annoyed; he had his eye on something rather similar in last Thursday's collection.)

Bicycle No. 16: Sunday March 11, 2007

I took this a couple of weeks ago on a stroll around Amsterdam -- it's actually two bikes, only one of which is attached to the rather large trailer. I'm impressed that anyone would even consider trying to cycle round with these ladders on a bike. The sharp corners and steep bridges of the Jordaan make it a somewhat treacherous endeavour. However, I'm not sure when the owner last attempted it; the back tyres look rather flat to me.

Bicycle No. 15: Monday February 26, 2007

OK. It's not a particularly interesting bike. But it IS where we will be keeping the bikes we buy when we return to the UK. One of the attractions of our new rented home is that it has a side gate, giving easy access for our bikes. Hurrah! Mind you, there are a few hills in Winchester, so I'm not sure how easy it will be to cycle around. Time for a bike with gears and a lightweight aluminium frame.

Bicycle No. 14: Sunday February 18, 2007

Twins: twice the work, the expense, and probably twice the number of stretchmarks. On the other hand, you get to cycle round with one of these specialist jobbies. It's just as well there aren't any hills in Amsterdam, as these things look heavy. You occasionally see them or the bakfietsen stuck at the bottom of a particularly steep bridge, the poor mother desperately trying to gain enough power to get up and over -- while the children are screaming in the front, oozing jam, and beating each other up. A recent newspaper article claimed that Dutch children are the happiest in the world, largely because of the child-centered nature of Dutch parenting. And they're probably right. After all, if you saw your mother sweating buckets "driving" you to nursery or to see Zwaarte Piet while you sat back like a little king in your carriage, wouldn't you feel loved?

Bicycle No. 13: Thursday February 8, 2007

Unlucky 13: well, unlucky for these two bikes, lying entwined on the plaza outside Amsterdam's WTC today. Their snowy embrace looks so ... intimate; I almost felt embarrassed at taking a picture. However, a Dutch woman was also amused by their display and took her camera out, too. I wonder if she has a blog called "Twee-en-vijftig fietsen"?

Bicycle No. 12: Sunday January 28, 2007

Despite the sub-zero temperatures, there are still a few hardy cyclists over here, attempting to cross the Charles River using pedal power (via the bridges, obviously). This lovely pink racer was chained up outside the Miracle of Science on Mass Ave in Cambridge, next to this "smoker's outpost" -- the designated spot for the nicotine-addicted and exiled over here. I can't wait to see similar posts springing up across the UK later this year.

Bicycle No. 11: Wednesday January 24, 2007

Finally! I've been so busy house-hunting that I haven't had time to take pictures of bikes. But the snow this morning prompted me to keep an eye out for something en route from Clive's pad to the bus stop, and I was rewarded with this. Not just snow on a bike, but the typical way of storing bikes in London -- chained to a fence and with the front wheel removed, just in case. What a relief!

Bicycle No. 10: Sunday January 14, 2007

It's been too windy to take pictures of bikes recently, but I snapped this one on the Brouwersgracht just before Christmas and thought it would do. I love the shape -- all curvy lines and almost chopper-like handleb ars. The crossbar isn't too high and looks like it would be manageable for a woman (or man) in a skirt. (For the record, I don't understand why bikes have crossbars now -- can anyone explain?) When we move back to the UK, I'll want a new bike for cycling around wherever we end up, and something that looks like this -- maybe in pink or green -- would suit me just fine. But with gears and brakes.

Bicycle No. 9: New Year's Day, 2007

The aftermath of last night's fireworks, encountered on the way back from the bottle bank -- where we deposited the aftermath of our alcoholic fireworks, including an (empty) magnum of champagne. The rains and high winds of New Year's Eve have given way to a beautiful, chilly day, just right for taking pictures of bikes and rocket launchers.

Bicycle No. 8: Saturday December 29, 2006

This is off-street parking, Amsterdam style. Our apartment building only has racks for the bikes from the front-of-building flats, including ours, but as you need at least two racks per apartment, it can get very crowded. I must confess that I have binned one bike (belonging to someone in an apartment that is now vacant). Actually, I didn't bin it -- I locked it up outside but somebody made off with it, despite the flat tyres and generally crappy appearance. Even off-street parking isn't safe in this town: Somebody made off with one of my bikes from these very racks. Bastards.

Bicycle No. 7: Wednesday December 20, 2006

Cycling in London is not for the faint of heart. What cycle lanes there are last for 10 meters, before merging back into the bus lanes. Cars pay scant attention to their two-wheeled foes. And taxi drivers believe that cyclists would deliberately throw themselves under cab wheels were the Dutch system of attributing automatic fault to the car driver in the event of a car/bike "interface" ever to be introduced over here. But the number of these hardy fools seems to be increasing; they're making their presence felt. If you click to enlarge the photo above, you'll see one cyclist powering his/her way down Gower Street, well-wrapped up against the bitter cold and trying to maintain a good distance ahead of one of London's bendy buses. Rather him than me.

Bicycle No. 6: Sunday December 17, 2006

Off to Chipping Campden in the Cotswolds for the weekend -- and a bike crisis. I saw horsies, I saw dogs, I saw plenty of 4x4s, but very few bikes. Irritatingly, I did see a group of cyclists prepping for a country bike ride -- flourescent gear, bike helmets, shiny mountain bikes -- but failed to take a picture of them, posed beautifully in Chipping Campden's historic market place. I dashed out of a boozy late lunch to find a bike -- any bike -- in the village, but this was all I could find. A fine bike used purely for advertising. Oh well, at least it's pretty.

Bicycle No. 5: Sunday December 10, 2006

For once this month, it's not raining -- but that doesn't mean you leave your bike exposed to the elements. As I strolled along the Brouwersgracht to Jo and Alan's to watch the football, I passed this bike wearing the traditional Dutch seat cover: an old Albert Heijn shopping bag. It's the only thing standing between a Dutch cyclist and a soggy bottom. Note also the three locks deemed necessary in this part of town: two hefty chains and a rear-wheel lock. We don't just attract the tourists round here, but also a number of light-fingered visitors. The swine.