City Ride

 Fri Sept 29

Happy Birthday to Me! In the summer I was in a sports clothing in Vancouver looking for a cycling vest. They didn’t have any, but the guy serving me seemed to be amazed that I was planning a cycling trip to Portugal. I was a little surprised at his reaction, because it seems people must be doing stuff like that all the time, coming into a shop like this one. I realized only later that he was probably seeing the proverbial little old lady, and marvelling that she could even walk, much less do a cycle tour. I do not like the thought of being old, but actually being old is pretty good, in my case. I recognise that I am very fortunate in that none of my health concerns (and there are some) have slowed me down much, and I thank my lucky stars for that! The huge upside to being old is having all the leisure time I could want, all that I craved in my younger years.

I never forget that my life is privileged, and that health is something easily lost through no fault of one’s own. I don’t take this life for granted, but live in gratitude every day.

I had a great birthday, one of the best ever! Ezra and Katharina were both off work, so we rode to the Kreutzberg area and had a beautiful lunch. Later in the afternoon, Katharina’s brother and his girlfriend came over for cake, two cakes in fact, and then spent the evening. The kids are absolutely nuts about Markus and Ivy, so everyone enjoyed themselves thoroughly. 

Katharina's famous marzipan cake, and Markus ready to eat it!

The Ride

For anyone interested, there are many phone apps to choose from that allow you to plan biking or hiking routes, and then to record them. Following the lead of some long-term cycle tourers on CycleBlaze, I use Ride with GPS to record my rides, and Relive to make them into little videos with photos inserted. It’s all pretty much automatic, once you’re set up, and super easy to use.

A few clever readers will get the wordplay in the title.

Photos on this Relive video:
- a beer garden along the bike/walk path, and the S-Bahn, a yellow train, going overhead
- pumping up tires. There are many, many bike shops in Berlin, and each has air or a pump available for passing cyclists
- Bergmannstraße, a chi-chi street in Kreutzberg, where we stopped to wander and to have lunch
- where gurus shop
- lunch at a Vietnamese place (3 shots)
- a record store sign showing the cheeky use of English I’ve encountered here and elsewhere
- a mosque along the way