Back on track

What a day! First day after me being sick on the bike again. You must know that I live very close to my work now (only 5 minutes by foot) and don't have to cycle there anymore, so I grap every opportunity to ride my bike to places elsewhere. Today these were, all at once:

• my doctor
• a bike shop
• the Vienna University of Technology to meet a friend

Here's the story:

Setting off at home, I picked up Paula from the basement. There is a huge bike storage room in the house, but there are less stairs from our compartment in the basement to the street than from the bike storage room, so I keep my beloved there for the moment.

I even dressed up today (slightly).	Paula in the basement.

Next thing I set of to my doctor who is located in the 18th district. That's actually uphill from where I live, but even in my recovery mode doable. I just took it a little bit easier than usual, no big deal. I was even early, so I could spend some time with Paula in a park nearby. As you can see I had a rain jacket with me. That's because the weather in Europe is currently very unpredictable. Thunderstorms and sunshine are interchanging many times a day...

Uphill and objects on the bike path.	Paula and me in all our glory.	Close-up

After meeting my jolly German doctor I was all positive about my health and set off to the next station -- the Citybiker bike shop. I was there recently for an initial service of Paula and spotted some cute bicycle bags. Unfortunately they didn't have the color I liked, so I went there again to pick up my new bicycle bag. How do you like it? I think it's a winner, wait for the review! I already got compliments of people at a café nearby the bike shop (for my nice bike and the bag). Congrats Paula, I'm proud of you.

Paula at the Gürtel bike path	Yeah!	Brandnew bike bag!

Talking about compliments: on the ride to the bike shop I chatted to another cyclist at a red light. He was impressed by my sweet retro bicycle, and I had to tell him about some technical details and the price. Quite nice conversation. I almost missed the green light, and only managed to capture the gentleman from behind.

Nice chat at a red light.

But this was not the only conversation I had. At a junction on a secondary road a young fellow on a Citybike approached me and asked where the return station at Karlsplatz is. As it was on my way, I even guided him there.

The Karlsplatz is nearby the University of Technology where I met my friend Alberto for a coffee. I know Alberto through the Mobility week workshop in Budapest last summer. He works at the Research Center of Transport Planning and Traffic Engineering (Hermann Knoflacher also works there, I wrote about him earlier). It seems that everybody there commutes by bike, thumbs up from me :-). Alberto works on the OBIS project. OBIS stands for Optimising Bike Sharing in European Cities. You can visit their homepage on obisproject.com. As such he's quite an interesting person to know and talk to. Needless to say, most of our conversation circulated around cycling and traffic :-). I should conduct a proper interview with him one day, remind me. Unfortuntely it always takes ages before we actually meet (believe it or not, but preparations for today's date already started in February!). Yeah, we're such busy people, aren't we?

"Grrr!" to people who park on the bike lane.	Can you see Paula?	Alberto and his bike in the office.

Getting back to my bike I noticed that it had rained in between. Luckily I had put a seat cover on Paula, and my butt stayed dry ever after. What a practical thing to have!

On the Ring bike path on the way back home I overtook two guys advertising a mineral drink. At a red light they catched up, and once again I had a little chat and was offered a bottle. No photographic proof of the sweet guys, but at least of the encounter as such.

Chatted to more cyclists, and even got a drink for free :-).

Finally back home, and Paula went to the basement again. I'm eagerly waiting for the next trip with her :-). By the way, as soon as I reached the flat, it was pouring again. Lucky me!

Heavy rain again, but I'm inside.

Moreover, by all this, I completed two tasks for the first category of the LGRAB summer games in just one afternoon:

• say hi to a cyclist at a red light
• schedule a bike date with a friend -- dress up!

I'm waiting for an applause :-).