I was an urban planner in a former life

 So when I recently was apologized to by a pedestrian who was about to step into the bike lane, it hit me hard that soon I will no longer be in super bike-friendly Berlin biking... In the US, I think it's pretty common to get cut off by cars, or yelled at when you're on your bike. You have to be on your toes because drivers are not used to seeing you, and they are in general impatient and in a rush (which also says something about our culture in general), not to mention on their phones. But I will admit there can be stupid and reckless bikers just like there can be stupid and reckless drivers.

It's just so refreshing that biking is the norm here...and you see everyone from 2-yr-olds to 80-year olds do it. Which means that cars are used to waiting for you, and pedestrians are used to staying out of bike lanes. (As the author pointed out in a recent NYT article, in Demark biking is the most popular form of transportation because it is also the fastest. Same here, I think. Definitely faster than the U-Bahn in most cases.)


By the way, Minneapolis MN is rated the #1 bike-friendly city in the US (by Bicycling magazine), followed by Portland, Boulder, Seattle, and Eugene. Madison is #7 and Ann Arbor is #14.  And Minnesota is ranked the second-most bike friendly state.

check out this nice bike lane

bike parking

 And now...this intersection always amazes me (below). Every time I cross it. There is a very nice bike lane for bikers making a left turn that then goes up onto the sidewalk. It's beautiful, and so well-marked, and I am in awe of the urban planners who figured this out.

So amazed, that I went on Google maps to find an overhead view of it:

Look at that planning. See how the bike lane separates from the right side of the road about half a block back? So cars turning right don't cut off the bikers? Super smart.
And one more example from google maps, check out the lines on German intersections. You have the bike lanes, the pedestrian crosswalks, and the car lanes. The traffic lights are on the same side of the street, so cars have to back way up for pedestrians (this is also a city with more pedestrian traffic than most American cities). Also, no right turns on red. That way, you cut off too many pedestrians and bikers. I am well aware that we have less pedestrian/bike traffic in the US, and so the right-turn-on-red thing makes more sense. But really? Are those 20 seconds going to change your life?

Oops this post got really long...I feel rather strongly about it...if you can't tell. :) Next time you're passing a biker, give them 3 feet space, take a deep breath...

Amrum I: small island on the North Sea

We traveled from Hamburg through Schleswig-Holstein to the North Sea coast, where we took a ferry to the island of Amrum, one of the North Frisian Islands along the western coast of northernmost Germany (near the border to Denmark). To get there we took a bus, two or three trains, and a two-hour ferry.

(For a funny flash-back, look at my post from 3 years ago when Michael and I went to Amrum for the first time.)

We got in Tuesday evening with just enough time to have dinner and go for a little walk. The sun didn't set until around 10:00 pm, so we could still see lots. Wednesday morning we rented bikes for 3 days, and after that our primary means of transport was biking around a very flat, little island (about 12 km from end to end, although much of that is beach). Wednesday we did a big tour, going through all the little villages. First we biked along the eastern coast, along the dike built to keep the North Sea in check.

We biked through the adorable little town of Nebel, with its thatched-roof houses, where we stopped at their historic church cemetery. The graves on the island tell life-narratives of the sailors, millers, farmers and their wives buried there. The stones are being restored so you can read the beautiful calligraphy. We stopped for a pastry and hot drink, and kept going after we were warmed up.

 The next stop was north of Norddorf, where we locked up the bikes in the little bike parking lot and walked down to the beach. If you can see on the map above, the beach on the north is the shortest. On the west, it is up to 2 km wide in some places.

 In the town of Norddorf we stopped for lunch for a Fischbrötchen, pickled herring sandwich, or Krabben, little shrimps caught in the North Sea. The sun peeked out for a little bit and so we had a drink and relaxed in a Strandkorb, a "beach basket" typical for the North and Baltic sea coasts, designed to protect bathers from the harsh winds.

Then the bike ride went through the forest, along the mountains of sand dunes, where we got out again to walk down a long boardwalk to the beach.  The view is totally indescribable...really high dunes as far as the eye can see and then the North Sea on the horizon.   

biking in Berlin - to the Freie Universität

 Monday the weather was perfect for biking: sunny but still quite cool. So I decided to bike to the FU. It takes about 45 mins with the U-Bahn, and it's a little faster by bike. It was the first time I did it, so once or twice I had to figure out exactly where I needed to go...but most of the route was residential or had bike lanes...super nice. It was also a scenic route: through Kreuzberg, Schöneberg, by the Rathaus where Kennedy spoke, through the park, by the Botanical Gardens... I really enjoyed it. And Berlin is so flat. Biking is pretty easy and fun. I haven't really been doing much long biking training for the triathlon, but I figure all of this bike commuting helps, too!

 

 In the photos below you can see some of the street markings for bike lanes, plus the extra little stoplight for bikers. It turns red - yellow - green (as well as the usual green - yellow - red)  so you can get your feet on the pedals and get ready to go. :)