On the road again

I grew up in a small city called Oldenburg in the north of Germany, not far from the border to Holland. The people in Oldenburg love their bikes, just like the dutch people and they have the same bike style: old fashioned, solid, very beautiful "dutch bikes" Riding a bike in Oldenburg is not for fitness, its a mean of transportation. Its the second thing kids learn after walking. During my childhood I rode my bike everyday to school, 6 km in the morning, 6 km in the afternoon and some more to go shopping or visit friends. It made me very independed even before I had a driver's licence. 

When I moved to Cologne for my studies I didn't give up cycling, despite the greater distances and the big traffic. 

Until I got pregnant... At one point I just didn't feel safe on my bike anymore with that belly and later, with the baby, there was never the right time to start it again and my bike was broken, then stolen.

But, last year my grandfather gave up his bike and he past it on to me. Since then it has patiently waited in the basement, unfortunatly with flat tires.

The last days I felt it coming. I promised myself no more springs without cycling. Boldness hit me though and I wanted to fix those tires myself. I spend all morning (like 5 hours!) with that bike. And a solid bike it is, very strong! I had a hard time and in the end my boyfriend did have to help a little but I did it, and was very, very proud to cycle to work in the afternoon. 

Aaron thought I had put up a new toy for him... He loves his own small bike (with four wheels) so much already, I think he's got that "oldenburg-blood" in him :-)

I took some pictures before I acctually started to unscrew the whole thing so that I would get it all back together again in the end...

... only to find out the chain was too short when all screws were back in place, so, like with some bad knitting, I had to do some "frogging".

In the end my hands looked like this and they still do (under the nails, if you have any idea how to remove that crazy stuff from under my nails please let me know!)

I put Aaron in that basket just for fun, not for riding. I have a kids seat for the carrier acctually but I am not sure if I will fix it because I have no idea how I will get off that mens bike if there is a kids seat at the back. I hardly get on that bike on my own...

So, in the afternoon on my way to work, I celebrated my first bike ride in almost two years, with some flowers. Have you seen a flower vase for a bike before? A friend of mine gave it to me but I had never really used it before, now it was the right time! I just love that vase, such a great feeling to have some flowers whereever you go. There is a crazy potter in the north of Germany who came up with that idea. He likes "bike vases, the arctic, pottery and pencils", sounds like a great chap, right?! You can get the vases here. (German site) And there are some wonderful pictures of bike vases on his site as well.

Have a wild weekend!!!