Biking around

On June 1st, we said goodbye to our apartment in Frederiksberg and moved to our permanent (well as permanent as it gets for me and Tom) rental house here in Trørød. We love the space, the neighborhood, and we love finally having our bikes! The community where we live is not really close to any major shopping areas, and without having a car here, our transportation options are either bike it or bus it. I definitely prefer biking. I have a child seat on my bike and Cavan just loves going places in it - he enjoys the process of getting all strapped in and will point to my seat and say "Mommy!" telling me that I should sit there so we can go! I also have a bike trailer to pull behind if I need to go on a bigger grocery shopping trip or to pull Cavan in once the weather gets colder. So far we haven't used it too much, but it's definitely a necessity.

When the weather is nice, biking is wonderful! We get to breath the fresh air, feel the blood pumping through our veins, and experience all of the new sights and smells at a close proximity. There's a road that we take from our little town of Trørød to the bigger town of Vedbæk where we can stop to see sheep graze out in the fields. There's really no stress about cars running you over because the whole infrastructure in Denmark is set up for bikers. In the picture here, you can see the very wide sidewalk on the left - the part that is asphalt is for bikers only. Unless you are on a very small and residential street, you most likely have your own bike lane.

There are times when our transportation situation can be a bit frustrating, however. Like today: this morning it was a little overcast, but it didn't feel like rain was headed our way, so I decided to bike with Cavan down to our friends' house in Hellerup, which is about 9 miles away. The ride there was lovely - a little path that ran alongside the train tracks, through a small forest. We biked through several small towns, past train stations, and after a few wrong turns finally arrived at our friends' house.

Then it started raining. Lightly at first, but as Cavan and Isabella played and had lunch, it got much heavier. Since biking home for an hour through the rain didn't seem like a good option, I decided we would take the train home (you can take bikes on the train). We got off the train at Vedbæk station and had to bike only about 12 minutes to get home....well by the time we made it here, we were soaked. We're talking I can see the color of my skin through my khaki capris, water dripping off my helmet, shoes are completely soaked. Cavan stayed a little drier as I block a lot of the oncoming rain for him, but his pants were pretty wet too. We walked in the door and just stripped down in the entry way. As yucky as it felt, though, we still had a good laugh about how wet we were. A few minutes and some dry jammies later, we were feeling better and ready for a nice long nap!

The good news is, there IS such a thing as rain gear, we just have to go out and buy it. They make rain coats and pants for kids and adults alike, which you can wear over your clothes. There are ponchos designed for bike riding that keep your legs dry. It's just like having windshield wipers on your car - as long as you're prepared, the weather really shouldn't stop you from going anywhere.

Now off I go, back into the rain to take Sasha for a walk :)