Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Why can't it be like this?

I found this video on YouTube the other day, and it makes me long for days I never even knew!



It does bring back memories of my cycle tour in Europe in '86. In particular it reminds me a bit of the first day of cycling. We were riding Nantes to Angers (in France). We had a headwind and none of us had been on our bikes for a couple of weeks. Only two of the students on the tour made it all by bike, the rest of us ended up on a train for part of the way. It was great. The French train system accepted our bikes with no additional charge and we didn't have to stow them in a baggage car. Once on, we were able to have a glass of wine as the countryside whipped by on the way to Angers.

I wish that we still had an extensive rail system in the United States, and that it was convenient and inexpeinsive to take our bikes on the train to a destination.

Ah, well, I'll just watch the video again and dream...

2 comments:

Christa said...

Nice find!

I had this sort of bike lifestyle in Davis, Calif. I would bike to the train station and go to Sacramento and San Francisco. It was always more difficult/scary to cycle in Sac and SF though.

Mark Kirschner said...

Thanks, Christa. I think that it always seems that way when we go from someplace smaller and more familiar to larger communities. I found that it took a little getting used to cycling in Seattle when we first move here in 2002. When we moved back last year, the adjustment wasn't as bad.