After some years I’ve finally come to ride my bicycle in Vienna (no, I don’t count those city-bikes as real bicycles). The journey from my flat to my company takes around 9 kilometres and should take me around 38 minutes according to the Viennese bicycle route planner.
The travel to my company took me approximately 50 minutes, on my way back I needed 35. Why? First of all the quality of the route planner is mediocre. It’s like “I’m not sure on which side of the river my route should be”. So just memorize the general direction, throw away the plan and try to move towards your goal while driving against as many one-way streets as possible. It will work. Second of all, who thought it a good idea to not label the bicycle tracks? It has a little bit of playing Half-Life: you want to get to the tall building seen on the not-so-distant horizon (some subway/tram bridge in my case) and you have three choices: the one that would lead directly towards it will of course lead you to nowhere. And finally the gear shift of my bike didn’t work as well as I remembered..
But big kudos to this morning’s Viennese car drivers: I survived them and this might have taken some steps on their parts. The same goes to the people on foot that where at high risk today.
Oh, and never, really never, try to stop with wet brakes. Now I’ve the rest of the summer to get under 25 minutes.
One hundred plus through black and white
War horse, War head
Fuck em, man, White knuckle tight
Through black and white
Metallica – Fuel
