Nothing beats the bike as a means of exploring, and I've been especially fortunate that, every Sunday the past two months, the weather's been dry, sunny, and generally pretty pristine for a long ride in the roads to the west and northwest of Helsinki.
The bike path network in Helsinki is mind-boggling. Pretty much every road in the city and surrounding areas have wide bike/pedestrian sidewalks on at least one side if not both sides of the road. The paths are very wide, so there's almost never problems with crowding with pedestrians. There are underpasses every so often under the main road so that you often don't have to cross traffic at all. The paths are nice enough that I can keep a pretty decent average speed going throughout. If anything, there are TOO many bike paths, such that it takes a LOT of time to become familiar enough with the routes to not get lost or waylaid.
The one downside of cycling here in Finland is that we've gone through 5 flats and 2 tires! Today's flat while riding with Juha was nuts - I actually rode over a small piece of branch and a pretty large perpendicular sub-branch jabbed right through the rear tire and the branch was just sticking out at 90o! I spent a lot of effort pulling bits of wood out of the tire while fixing the flat to make sure it didn't re-puncture.
The one downside of cycling here in Finland is that we've gone through 5 flats and 2 tires! Today's flat while riding with Juha was nuts - I actually rode over a small piece of branch and a pretty large perpendicular sub-branch jabbed right through the rear tire and the branch was just sticking out at 90o! I spent a lot of effort pulling bits of wood out of the tire while fixing the flat to make sure it didn't re-puncture.
Tuesday, it's onwards to Brussels and the Belgian heartland of cycling!
There may not be any major problem with crowding on the bike lanes, but didn't you ever encounter meandering pedestrians who are absorbed in their mobile phone conversations or dog-owners with their pets freely dashing across the lane at the end of a flex leash? The lanes may appear wide, but it doesn't help all that much when people using them cannot quite grasp the fact that they are not walking all alone in a forest wilderness like their ancestors did. And don't get me started on those roller-skiers with their flailing poles!
ReplyDeleteToo bad you weren't here earlier in the year when the bike lanes are covered with tiny needle-sharp pieces of crushed stone that is spread after even the tiniest snow fall in order to keep the pedestrians from slipping and breaking their bones but which is never properly cleared away until June - you would certainly have perfected our tube changing skills! And the potholes, bumps and treacherous cracks caused by frost damage in winter and spring but are not usually prepared until autumn would have made for even more interesting rides.
It is absolutely true that a vast majority of cyclists here manage the trick of passing each other as if they weren't there, but it would seem to me that things are changing and at least the members of the road cycling fraternity is picking up strange habits and it does happen that palms are lifted off the bar or heads nodded slightly.
Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed your stay in Finland and that you were here when cycling is at its best!
Amazing landscape on that road !!!
ReplyDeletekodak moment !!