There’s a petting zoo in the park I bike or walk through if I’m heading into the city proper, so if I decide on a leisurely stroll one weekend or evening (e.g. the best bakeries are over that way), I get to watch the goats cavorting.
I’ve pondered starting a new series called “transport choices” but just don’t think it’ll ever be visually stimulating enough to get me going or keep your eyes. This would be a good example: a Guardian article sent by a friend a a couple years back told me about this underground & underwater bike parking garage next to Amsterdam Centraal. Various articles on the Dutch (and in particular Amsterdam) choice to seriously invest in bike, foot and public transit infrastructure over and above car infrastructure strike a tone of mixed admiration and derision, I find – and this article was no exception. Having used this precise bike garage now multiple times to conveniently convey myself and my tennis-bag via bike to Centraal, drop the bike in a clean, safe, dry, attended underground lot for a cheap daily rate after the first free 24 hours and then simply walk up the stairs on the other side then directly into the station, I’ll say this use of my tax dollars is a far more welcome use than nearly all the uses my US tax dollars go for. Yeah, that’s my bike in its little spot before one of my Berlin trips this year. The Dutch deride me for my helmet, but I’m as impervious to that as I am to American derision for this fabulous parking alternative.
It took me a year but I’ve finally concluded that, yeah, I live by a lake now just like my brother does during his summers in Wisconsin – where this series had its genesis. (But just to be clear, it’s also part of the canal and water-management system, as is all fresh water in NL, aside from mud puddles in the street.) Above came near the end of my Friday-evening cirumnambulation of said lake (11,000 steps); compare the level of sunset at 19:18 on Friday the 27th to that at 20:00 in the other two from Saturday the 21st: ah, how the days shorten rapidly around the solstices! And the other was going to be part of a Signs of the City entry but it fits as nicely here. Yep, that’s my local swimming hole, unofficial though it may be.
(so much world, so little time....) 