#23 - Go bike riding

In 2006, as part of one of my conference trips to Europe (the best thing about doing a PhD!) I spent about a week in Paris with my lovely friend Katrina.  One of the highlights was visiting Monet's house and garden at Giverny.  Giverny is a little way out of Paris - we caught the train and then had the option of taking a bus or riding bikes to Monet's house.  We deliberated long enough to miss the bus, and so the decision was made for us.  And then I discovered that it is possible to forget how to ride a bike!  At first, I could hardly stay upright.  We walked our bikes through the centre of town, but once we were out on the road, I was completely freaked out.  I just tried to ride in a straight line as close as possible to the edge of the road and hoped that cars and trucks would just go around me.  It was such a relief to get off the road onto a bike track, although I was still holding onto the handlebars so tightly that my hands barely worked for several days afterwards.

Here, Katrina was taking photos of me as I rode the bike towards her.  You can see my complete inability to ride in a straight line!

This is a recreation of my crash.  I was riding towards this gate, and somehow could not avoid hitting the post, at which point I completely lost control and the bike fell over.  Not to worry - I wasn't hurt, so I got back on the bike and we kept going towards Monet's house (which was just beautiful!).

Despite my crash, and the bruises on the back of my legs from when my feet kept slipping off the pedals, I enjoyed bike riding in Giverny, and so I'd been wanting to try it again.  I convinced my lovely friend Danielle to come with me to Centennial Park, where we hired bikes and set off to ride around the bike track.  About 50m from where we hired the bikes, I managed to lose control.  The front wheel of the bike hit a step, stopped abruptly, and I went flying over the handlebars, gaining some pretty spectacular bruises in the process.  But we kept going, and made it around the park 3 times before we decided it was time for chocolate at Max Brenner's!  Next time I'm thinking of trying Bicentennial Park - the route around Centennial Park is just too short!