Phew! This week has been busy. The girls started school this week so we've been adjusting to the schedule and figuring out everything that goes along with attending school in a new country. The first week went very well. I have so many photos to post! First, the cargo bike:
We've known we didn't want to have a car while we are here. E has adapted amazingly well to walking around everywhere. For S, though, it has been more difficult. We've had to choose whether we want to walk everywhere at a three-year-old's pace, or if we want to carry her - mostly by strapping her to my back with the mei tai, but three year olds aren't light any way you carry them. But now we have the bike! Yahoo!!
Over here bikes are the main mode of transportation. There are bikes e.v.e.r.y.w.h.e.r.e. The roads are amazingly well set up for bikes. Almost every road has a set bike lane, most have three separate lanes for cars, bikes and pedestrians, complete with three, yes, THREE sets of lights at each intersection (one for cars, one for bikes, one for pedestrians.) In addition there is a huge network of bike paths that run independent of roads all through town and between towns. We've taken our bikes everywhere around town and I can't think of a single instance yet when we've had to share the actual road with a car. We often see small bike wheel width ramps on outdoor staircases, even in our apartment building there is a special ramp to take your bike down to our own indoor bike parking lot in the basement. There is a three-storey bike parking lot at the train station. We have even seen a bike parking lot in the middle of a canal on a floating platform. This is bicycle utopia!
So, we bought our cargo bike. We picked it up last weekend, in time for school to start. It makes the morning commute easier!! This bike seats up to four children (or two children and a lot of groceries). It is fitted with two bench seats, facing each other, seat belts for four and special steps so the girls can climb in easily. The extra bars over the girls' heads in the last photo are to hold a zip-on rain-proof cover. This is an all-weather vehicle, of course!
We've seen several of these around town. There are a few preschools that own similar bikes that hold even more children. I can't imagine how hard it is to pedal a bike with six kids!! With just two kids going up hills is a challenge, though hopefully I'll get better at that! (Special thanks to our friend Jodi - if she hadn't shopped around for these to ferry her children around we wouldn't have known the first thing about what to buy.)
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| The test drive |
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| The first ride. The girls couldn't wait to get in! |
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They'd already made up their minds, they wanted the bike.
But they wanted to test drive as long as we'd let them. |
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| S waiting in the bike - almost time to take it home! |
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| The ride home |
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| The ultimate mini-van! |
2 comments:
That is SO neat! I wish we had one here (although I don't know what we'd have to pay to park that in our new basement).
Is the picture at the top that fun old housing museum you were telling me about?
love you all
m
This is the coolest ever! And even more cool that you can ride it around without worrying about car traffic all the time. You've found civilization!
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