new year 2000 i visited amsterdam for the first time. this is me in love. I drove a car from hamburg to a^dam after new year zwei thousand in berlin, and once i made it through the outer ring road, I realized amsterdam was a bicycle city. i feel silly now for not knowing that in advance, but it WAS my first time out of the country... I ditched the car and spent one of the first weeks of my life out of "urban" southern california and my first time ever in a true bicycle culture. I would never be the same.
i cry for a car free life. i live without a car, but i ride with cars, and every time i am on the road there is tension. biking in san francisco is a functional contrast of relaxation and stress, more lovely than not, but there is better. there is bike culture. give me bike culture(not counterculture), give me bicycle(mobility)asylum now. please.
don't you just love a'dam? was there for a few days a few years after you:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/ericm/sets/72057594105542792/
even 1st snow in 25 years didn't keep them off their bikes...
u ride and you are beautiful.
ReplyDeletelet sf ring as the ridable city in our beautiful golden state <33
eric, snow can:t stop cycling when it:s a way of life. much like- not much can stop car driving in the us, even in SF where driving a car doesnt make much sense. sigh.
ReplyDeletemeli- thanks bebe. i love sf and wouldn:t change it for any other city in the califaslands. i look at photos of amsterdam, where there are no cars on certain streets, and it makes me sentimental. this was a post was from a particulary sensitive day. :) i know there is better, but you bet I:ll see you on the road, ding ding!