Serendipity

I'm sometimes amazed how something that ended up being really important was left to chance ... and it worked out just fine.

Upon arriving in Graz I realized that it was about 2.5 miles from my office to our apartment.  Last year that distance was a little less than 1.5 miles.  So, a 20-minute walking commute was going to turn into 30 or so minutes.

I thought, "it would be nice to commute via bike."  Graz is a very bikeable city.  For the most part it is flat, there are bike lanes all over the city, some nice trails, and most importantly, lots of others bike, which means that the drivers are used to driving alongside bikes and by all accounts are courteous.

So, I asked around at TUG and within a couple of hours, I had a bike to use during my stay.  It was sturdy, had a basket and fenders, and it had a light system in case I needed to ride it at night (more about that later).

I can't overstate how much I enjoyed having this bike and how much I used it.  I used it to commute back and forth to work.  I used it for my morning exercise, taking rides of about 20 miles pretty regularly and even had one 25-mile ride one weekend.  I also used the bike to go back and forth between the grocery store (the basket was a good size for that).  And then I used the bike to go back and forth between our apartment and Loulou and Renato's (so that I could drive their car for outings, say).  In short, this bike was important to enjoying my time in Graz.  And I didn't work out ahead of time how to get a bike, which bike, etc. -- it just came together once we arrived.  Nice.

p.s.  The most unusual use of my bike came when Grace and Henry had a sleepover.  We got the call that parents dread to get at around 1a.  I rode my bike to Loulou and Renato's, they let me borrow their car, I drove one of our children home, and when they awoke in the morning, I drove the child back to continue the sleepover with breakfast.  I retrieved my bike and headed out on my morning bike ride.