fahrräder

did i mention they really like bicycling here?

it's a bit of a national obsession. it's really nice too, because they have the perfect infrastructure for biking basically everywhere. along every major road are both biking and walking lanes (biking denoted by red brick work or paint, walking by black). signs with distance to landmarks are everywhere and my street is actually a bike/bus only street for most of the day.

pretty much everyone owns a bike too. in front of the train station (see below) there are about 4M parked and collecting rust on the weekends. apparently it hasn't always been this way--an idea that gives me some small hope for the united states. 10 years ago or so, there weren't many bikers at all, and it's only since the gov't started increasing gas taxes and building lanes that people have become really interested in it as a means of daily transportation. it's a little strange too, as it's really very rainy here and not always a fun place to depend on a bike.

in addition to city riding, it's also really easy to get out into the country on a bike. the fields and forests have paved or smooth gravel paths for farm/forest equipment (sustainable logging is pretty common here). it's nice because these automatically make an amazing system of bike paths that go from little town to town. just last night i spent 2-3 hours biking through the farm and forest on the north western side of town.

my bike, formerly equiped with rockin' blue handlebar extentions (stolen this past weekend after my stupid lock drama), is pretty nice. not as light or fast as my one at home, but definitely sufficient for my needs here. it's probably good that it is a little more sturdy as i've been taking it off on some wild country adventures. bikes here are apparently supposed to be equipped with a light for night driving. mine actually doesn't work, but i'm hoping the politzei won't notice.

sadly, i'm paying 10 €/month for this thing. this wouldn't be that bad, but i'm sure i could have bought a used one here for less than 120 € and then resold it. ah well, it's not too bad a solution.