First of three new bicycle parkings under Central (train) Stration in Amsterdam opens tomorrow. Its capacity 7000 bikes. In a couple of weeks another one for 4000 will open, a third one for 8500 bikes will follow in a couple of years.
Mind you Sassy, my ride included the famous ascent of the Kopje van Bloemendaal (Bloemedaal’s little head) which reaches a staggering height of 41 meters or 142 feet !
A bit different than here for sure. I invested in an electric bicycle for our development, it is so hilly…still need to peddle a lot, but the extra oomph helps. The hardest part is not hitting a bump and flying off when going almost 30mph on the downhills!!
The very few bicycle rail trails nearby are relatively flat and I can do on my mountain bike…but here, not so much fun. I do run it tho…upsy, downsy…
That’s why, when planning a ride, I try to go against the wind first, so I can have the wind in my back as a reward going home. Sometimes the wind changes direction though, a mountain or hill will stay the same… Also (like you just did) sometimes I will just ride with the wind in my back for as long as I want and take a train back home.
That’s the worst. Changing wind direction during the day. It also happened to me that I started off against the wind and came back in another valley where the wind was against myself. Oooommmmm. Crying alone on the bike.
If you steer away from the coast there is a lot of up down up down up down up down it’s a bit like finding track 9 3/4 in Harry Potter and once you find it there is so much beauty.
No worries. I am anyway more equipped for touring. Gravel bike and porter. Which is perfect otherwise I would feel too ashamed of the speed of the road cyclists here.
I had great fun cycling through Berlin and the surrounding area. There are many bike paths so it’s relatively safe. Some improvements could and should be made. Many of the bike paths are simply a piece of sidewalk designated to cycling. And many of those are so narrow that the only way to overtake is to go to the right unto the pedestrian part of sidewalk.
When there is a part of the main road reserved for cycling, it is done simply by painting a bike and a stripe on the road. Dangerous. Or you can use the bus and taxi lane. Also dangerous.
As an aside, the Germans love cobblestones. In all sorts, shapes and sizes. I am amazed there’s no pro race a la Paris Roubaix here. Or maybe there is and I just don’t know about it. This little piece of road was nigh impossible to navigate, as were many other stretches of road. Maybe should have deflated my tyres a bit. I survived although I bounced around quite a bit.
Without knowing it, I did my first long ride of the year, which was also my first one in bib shorts and short sleeves, to celebrate the return of @anon9289869 to the forum. Happy to see you friend!