First cycle in a new land!

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Phew... I feel like I'm a bit run off my feet at the moment. There is the shipment of stuff that arrived in the week, and then work, teaching, performing and kids... and also university assignments to complete. I feel like most days are pretty full at the moment. Mostly, I just want to have some free time and space to tidy up the garden (I'll post about that soon enough.. but there is a good deal of tidying and clearing to do!), and unpack the boxes and start setting up the new home!

Unfortunately, things will be a bit clearer in terms of schedules in a week or two... barring any unforeseen avalanches of time-sinks! Anyway, this evening... I returned back to the new place after a wedding job that was a couple of hours out of Canberra. It was actually nice to be playing for functions/weddings again, I used to love doing it as a student... and I still love messing around and getting paid to play for fun with friends! Plus... the pay rates are pretty decent, so I have no complaints there!

It did mean that I got back to the new place relatively late... and I had to make my way back to the place where we are currently sleeping. I had wanted to cycle back, now that our e-fietsen had arrived from the Netherlands after a roughly 3 month tour of the world on the high seas. I did miss riding around... but the Netherlands is a different riding environment than Australia... even if Canberra is one of the few places in Australia that is making some degree of infrastructure for bicyling!

Still... even with the added bike lanes and all of that, there are a few things that will be forever different. The first is the fact that you have to wear a helmet whilst cycling! That was a weird experience!...

,,, and then there is the unavoidable difference in geography. Netherlands is flat... as flat as can be! Australia has hills and slopes! So, I'm not entirely sure if it was that I was 3 months out of practice in riding bikes... or the fact that we live on a slope and to get back to our in-laws place, I had to start by riding uphill... but that first minute or so was a killer... even with the electric motor assist!

However, once the hill was crested it was pretty much downhill from there... and oh my god, I did pick up a huge amount of speed there! At one point, the speedometer on the bike clocked around 48 kph (that is 0.34857648574368574635435% percent of light speed for our American friends, or is it 3459847598574.21323987 hotdogs per year?... I forget the types of units that you guys use).

Anyway, when it is dark and the evening... and the air is still and cold, and there are no cars around... it is quite fun and exhilarating... but the thought is always there in the back of your head... if I fall or hit something, it is really going to sting a bit! Thankfully, I left my violins back in the new place... and so, if I did stack it, well... at least I won't have killed a centuries old artefact!

... I'm going to wonder how the bakfiets (cargo bike) is going to handle this... the uphills will be slow, but manageable... but I'm more concerned about whether or not the brakes will handle the downhill speeds! My wife has already forbidden me to carry the kids in the bakfiets. At the time, I scoffed at the idea that it was dangerous... now, I think I have to agree that she is right! Probably not a good idea to have living humans in the cargo bike... or at least not ones that we care about!

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7 comments
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Suppose helmets are meant to restrict distractions, constant reminder that speed and hills don't go so well together. Oh plenty hills in the region, Netherlands is flat as a pancake. Other side of the coin, work uphills, freewheel down 😅

Sounds like you starting to have some fun!

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Yeah, we are starting to find our feet here... lots of little things to still sort out, but everything starts to fall into a place of sorts so that we can start building out the rest of our lives!

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Wonderful region to settle in, local friends left here years ago, settled in Canberra very happy and still there.

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Nice to see that Dutch steed is cruising the Austrian streets! Once you cycled in the Netherlands, most other countries suck at bike infrastructure!

Hopefully one day it’ll be safer everywhere!

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Yep, it is weird to have carted the bike to the other side of the world, but we will start using it more often. The bakfiets... not sure about that, it might be a death trap!

Yep, have to agree... everywhere else sucks in comparison to the Dutch infrastructure.

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Awesome about the bike ride! I'm hoping to begin trekking out on bike again this week. One bike needs a tune up, the other needs a severe seat adjustment so it quits slipping while riding.

Helmets are not required riding in Delaware (cannot speak for our neighbouring states) but they definitely were in Calgary. Using a helmet is something I've grown accustomed too, and use to my advantage; I do not like wearing sun glasses while riding, so I use the helmet's visor to block the sun.

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Oh, slipping seats suck... Ah, I hadn't thought of the bike helmet as a visor. I might have to look into those, I'm not so fond of changing my regular glasses to sunglasses... I always misplace them!

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