Travel + Leisure's July issue describes the "world's top biking cities" Three are in the U.S.: Minneapolis, Portland (Oregon) and Seattle.
The others are Amsterdam (of course), Bogota (who knew?), Copenhagen, Montreal, Munich, Paris and Perth.
The site offers a slide show of the various cities. There's a great photo of a four-story parking structure in Amsterdam filled completely with bikes.
The write-ups give a nice little description of why the writers liked these particular biking cities. Even better for the solo traveler, they give information about where to rent a bike.
Here's a tip they didn't mention: If you don't want to bicycle alone, check out the Adventure Cycling Association's "companions wanted" page. Perhaps you can connect with someone who wants to bike where you do.
In Copenhagen, the "bycyklen" are free with a refunded coin deposit. The city so supports cyclists that a city agency maintains the huge fleet available to tourists. The bike Web site claims its city bikes are world famous. "When you tour the city you notice, that especially tourists love riding the city bikes."
One of the more unusual experiences I had, while in the Netherlands, was renting a bike as a means of transportation for a several-day excursion. My friend and I (this was not a solo trip) would throw our bikes onto trains and park them in front of hotels.
Because they were rentals, they weren't anything fancy but who needs a lot of gears in a flat country? One night we pedaled several miles from our hotel to a nice restaurant with white tablecloths. We dined on seafood and drank wine by the sea as the sun set. And felt like we earned our food because of the pre-meal exercise.
Minor problem with biking to dinner? Who wants to get back on that bike on a full stomach? Lesson learned. Not that I wouldn't do the activity again. But I would pencil into the plan some post-meal digesting time.
And get home before dark if the ride home is through the woods...as ours was. Especially if I were alone.
Photos: Ellen Perlman. The Netherlands.
Comments