Finally went out for a bike ride this morning, and finally, finally enjoyed it! I wonder how long I will have to live in Basel before I stop finding it exciting to say "I went to France this morning." I cycled to Hegenheim, which is the French village I actually see from my office window. I was surprised by how pretty it is, and how much it already feels like France, not Switzerland.
This is where I crossed the border for the first time - there wasn't anyone official at any of the four borders I crossed this morning:
I still felt fresh when I came back into Allschwil, so I cycled up a loooooong hill to Schönenbuch and then across the fields to Neuwiler. Crossed the border into France again there, much to my surprise - Neuwiler is in France despite the name. Followed a signposted bike route, trying to find my way back to Allschwil and found myself going off-road through the forest where we run at lunchtime. Eventually found my way back in Allschwil for the third time and headed home.
So I'd been to another country and visited several places that I'd never seen before, not to mention seen some fabulously gorgeous houses. After two hours of cycling I still felt fine and strong. I hadn't been (too) scared or nauseous, I hadn't fallen off or been killed and I felt like I was finally seeing the point of this whole cycling thing. And then, in sight of our building, the chain came off. I swore and proceded to put it back on. Nope, it wouldn't go on. After several failed attempts, the whole gear, chain system thingie (NO idea what all the bits are called) decided to give up the ghost. Hmmmm, now that bit that normally holds the chain taut was touching the wheel and making a lot of noise. OK bike, I said, be broken but please be quiet about it. Whatever I did seemed to make it worse and finally the wheel refused to go around at all and I had to walk home pushing the biek while holding the back wheel off the floor.
I haven't looked at it again yet, I was too tired and cross when I got back. Even if I can fix it myself, I'm going to have to take it to a bike shop to get the chain tightened and the gears fixed, and the brakes are doing funny things too. I'm annoyed because I don't want to spend money on this bike. I want to save for a road bike. But it's too early in the year for the bike markets here, and I need a working bike. It's annoying, but I'm so thankful it didn't decide to go while I was in the middle of Allschwil forest or grinding up the hill to Schönenbuch.
This a nice pic of the forest. It's not as green as this yet though.
So I made it to 2 hrs cycling this morning, an absolute record for me, and I felt fine at the end which makes me very happy. I have to get ready to go out climbing now, so I don't have time to write about what a fun afternoon J and I had yesterday. There was a picnic and ice cream and falling asleep on the sofa watching the six nations rugby. Afternoons don't get much better than that!
