On Saturday Evgueni and I went for a bike ride around Frankfurt. We looked for a park to ride in. The one we found sounded nice, but it looked far. We decided to do goggle search and found out we’d have to cycle 15 km’s to get there. I suggested we take the metro there and ride back (soooo lazy!) but truthfully, I know my limits.
So naturally, we just started riding to enjoy the day. We cycled to the Frankfurt stadium to check it out. It looked like… a stadium. There was a football game and a loud crowd cheering. To get there we traveled mostly through the city. Frankfurt infrastructure is designed really well. There is a designated bicycle lane in almost every location. The lane is either on the road or on the sidewalk. When it’s on the sidewalk it is delineated by something as subtle as a different colour of interlocking brick, little steel dots attached to the sidewalk or a less subtle, painted bicycle or bollards. The lane is right next to traffic on the outside of the sidewalk and when on the road it’s always painted just like traffic lanes. If you want to make a left turn it turns you right, than straight. The transitions between road and sidewalk are smooth and usually intuitive. To the unaware tourist or even an oblivious local the subtle transitions can be deathly. Stay out of the lane or you WILL get run over. Lots of bell dinging and cursing going on at these impactful times. Here, people ride like they drive. Fast. Hard on the gas and hard on the break. I never heard so many screeching bike brakes in my life. But, although I’m getting used to it, I still find myself preparing to break (say, at a light) where everyone else is still pedaling like mad.
The good thing about the hard gas, brakes and lane rules etc. is that the rules become reliable and predictable. As a pedestrian, I can pretty much cross a crosswalk without looking trusting that no matter what (i.e. with hard slamming of breaks), the car will stop. I hate to point out the exception, but will anyway: I’ve noticed that the only people who are casual about this pedestrian rule that Germans take so seriously are people who “look foreign”. Which in turn is why I’m trying not to get too lazy about my street spidy sense.
Okay, so I’ve veered from our cycle….
We rode. We rode and we rode. Saturday was super WINDY!! Winter is strongly blowing in these days, so we had an extra force to contend with. By the time we got to the stadium (less than half way), my legs were aching and my butt was complaining despite the cushy ride. So, yes, I started moaning about it. Poor E! We rode on. Then suddenly we were ambushed from above! With all the wind the trees were swaying and dropping their bombs. We were pummeled by acorns! Lucky me, I was wearing my helmet – ping, ping, pop!! The crackle under my tires was really nice too although sometimes the little nuts would veer me slightly off course.
We finally got to A park and it was splendid! We rode through with giant grins pasted on our faces, pine tree fragrance swooshing our senses with a crackling acorn and walnut shell humming under our tires… ahhhhhh!!! All worth it!!
By now, we felt we had to head home. My legs were jello and my butt was protesting. We did a loop so that we could continue exploring while headed homeward. We went over some lochs and through more neighbourhoods we didn’t know. By now even Evgueni’s butt was complaining. Sorry, I mean he was complaining about his butt. In total, we cycled 26kms in 2.5 hours. It is now Tuesday and I am still sitting carefully and leaning ever so slightly onto the cushier parts.
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