Miss Kimbers

Bike riding in Hamburg

Sunday, 26. July 2009, 16:22:14

Hamburg, Cake, Photos, Weather, Stadt Rad, Sweet Dreams, Bike Riding, Icecream, Raining

Hamburg is a great city for cycling! The city is mostly flat, so hills are no problem. There are also red bike lanes on most footpaths and/or bike lanes on the road.

Why bike riding is better than the train:
1. It is cheaper
2. Exercise
3. Sunshine
4. You get to see things that you don't see when on the train

Why train is better than bike riding:
1. It rains a lot in Hamburg
2. It could be safer
3. You normally have more of an idea of where you are going

Saturday morning: The plan was to go to a German island. This plan however was thrown out of the window as the weather was bad. So, weather is bad, what do you do? You go bike riding

Problem: I don't have a bike
Solution: The city of Hamburg has a new project, STADT RAD. Through this project, you can ride bikes around the city (nearly) for free. First you need to sign up and enter your bank/credit card details. Next, find a bike station and use the machine there to rent a bike. The first 30 minutes are free and each minute after will cost you 4 cents. There are discounts if you have BahnCard or HVV cards. It is a really great system which unfortunately wouldn't work in Australia because it's the law to wear a helmet.

A Stadt Rad bike station

My Favourite German and I rode to Sweet Dreams, the cake shop I wrote about last week. On the way there we rode through the suburbs where the rich people live. They have really big houses! We had to take a break because it started to rain. We waited on a little jetty.

After the rain stopped, we rode further and at Sweet Dreams we ate Swedish cherry cake and berry cheese cake

We had to take a break from bike riding again because it started raining. It rains very often here. However, after 10 minutes the sun started shining and the birds were singing once again

That's the good thing about Hamburg. The rain goes away after a while.

We rode further, to Grindelallee where we made an icecream break. A cookies icecream break

The sun was shining and everything was great...and then the rain started again....

Icecream in Germany looks different from icecream in Australia.

After a while we decided the rain had calmed down. We rode 20 metres and then the rain started again...

We wanted to go to the Reeperbahn, so we rode in that direction...but yes, you guessed it. It started raining again. We took another break...then rode again...took another break...We finally got there

WEAPONS FORBIDDEN. The funny thing is, there is a weapon shop on the Reeperbahn. Glass bottles are also forbidden on the Reeperbahn on certain days.

And that was Saturday. I highgly recommend the Stadt Rad project. It is quite simple to use and there are many bike stations where you can rent/give back your bike.