Bicycles
We Dutch love our bicycles.
Okay, some love them more than others, but generally we Dutch tend to go places by bike.
Come rain or shine, we brave the weather conditions and heroically pedal towards our destination.
And, even if we don’t have a particular destination, if the weather is nice we take our bicycle from the shed and just cycle through the woods and the fields, stop at a little cafe to have a drink and a piece of apple pie, and onwards and upwards (but not too much upwards, because the Netherlands are quite flat) we go.
Hubs and I, incredibly young and strong human beings *cough*, sometimes go for a spin on a sunny Sunday afternoon, and on occasions, too many for our liking if we are honest, people who are much older than we are pass us with great speed. As if we are not moving at all. Leaving us slightly out of breath and increasingly depressed.
But we now know how these geriatric overtakers do it! They have a small electrical motor that makes pedalling a lot easier. We are no longer depressed, but proud that we can still cycle using only muscular power. HA! We laugh at those poor souls who need electrical assistance.
Electric bicycles are getting more and more popular. You still have to move the pedals, but if you don’t have very much strength in your legs, or if you are going uphill (what we call uphill makes the Austrians laugh their heads off whilst slapping their Lederhosen), the motor will assist you in turning the pedals around. My parents (79 and 87 years old) have such bicycles. The only problem is that if you want to make a long trip on your bicycle, you need to recharge it somewhere along the way.
But where?
Well, here for instance:
Provided by a little restaurant where you can plug in your bike and have a cup of coffee or a lunch, while your mode of transport is recharging it’s batteries too.
I love this means of transportation... and love a culture that promotes it.
ReplyDeleteI never learned to swim and I never learned to ride a bicycle. Do you have adult-size tricycles for people like me? (not that there are many people like me, you understand)...
ReplyDeleteRWP - I never tried to ride a bike until I was 23, and could only go round in a circle. It is an accomplishment which continued to elude me - you are not alone! But I can swim! :) Your cycle photos look very tempting, Carolina...
ReplyDeleteI would love it if cycling was so popular here - I'd need a large motor with all our Yorkshire hills though!
ReplyDeleteKaren,
ReplyDeleteYou'll love it here ;-)
RWP,
In fact, there are tricycles for adults. You can find some here for instance:
http://www.ab-fiets.com/info_driewieler-volwassenen.html
And you are never to old to learn something new ;-)
Jinksy,
perhaps you should take a look at the site I mentioned above, in the comment to RWP. Just cycling around in circles seems rather pointless. Perhaps a tricycle will make it possible for you to cycle in a straight line.
jennyfreckles,
Perhaps there is a reason for cycling not being so popular in the Yorkshire HILLS!!!! ;-)
I wish we were so active here. We don't have little towns around where I live, it's all busy traffic.
ReplyDeleteHugs & love,
Mimi
I want a bicycle that gives me a little help when I need it.
ReplyDeleteGood to see that bicyclces are used. One way of keeping healthy as well as reducing polution.
ReplyDeleteI can barely stand it, I'm about to have a "vibrant, beautiful country" overdose! It makes me want to frolic. Eek. Frolicking before noon? Never!
ReplyDeleteSeriously, those are gorgeous photographs, I'm so caught by the truly green grass. No wonder the Dutch to bike hither and yon, it's so pretty!
By the way, I'm in Colorado and yes, "hills" is a very polite, and restrained way to describe Austria, as well as the "hills" in the Rockies out here.
They do brutal things like have races of 100 miles (completed in a day) where the altitude ranges from 11k to 16k (k being a mark for one thousand feet ...I point out as you think in metrics and we're still all "How many horses high is that?" ;-) ).
Now doesn't that sound unpleasant? Or is it just me?
Either way, I'd rather look at your pictures, they're lovely.
Whoa. We have outlets to plug in the block heaters on the car (keeps the engine from freezing.. is it cold enough there for that to happen to Bob?), but not for bikes. I'm too afraid to get run over to ride my bike much. Drivers don't leave enough space and it's tooo scary.
ReplyDelete