BiCiNg

I keep mentioning biking, and thought it deserved its own post. Because it’s one of the most enjoyable parts of daily life here so far! Barcelona has this citywide public bike system called bicing, which costs 30 Euros a year. You sign up and get a card, and can then access the bikes all over the city. You get 30 minutes for “free”, and if you keep it out longer than that, you pay a modest amount to keep it for up to two hours. It’s basically thought of as a transportation system to get more cars off the road, and while motorists might be irritated by how much space on city roads has been converted to bike lanes, it makes it really great for the bike riders like us!

There’s something romantic and carefree about riding a bike like this, picking it up and dropping it off anywhere in the city. We’ve got an app on our iPhones where we can look up the nearest location and get a bike, so it’s pretty easy to find them no matter where we are. (Yes, I know, you can’t help but become a bit of a geek when you marry one).  And since the sidewalks are really wide in the city, you can ride on the sidewalks whenever you’re not sure where you’re going, and end up on roads without bike lanes. The only problems we’ve found are availability (sometimes you have to walk to the next station, especially popular places during peak times) and upkeep of the bikes (sometimes you get one with wobbly wheels or gears that won’t change). But for the most part they work fine, and since we only ride it for 10 or 20 minutes usually, and then leave it, the bad bikes don’t bother us too much when we get them.

It’s definitely added to our Barcelona life so far! Grabbing a bike, zooming along in the bike lane, talking and teasing each other. Much faster than walking, and more fun. Last night we went to a movie across town, got out at about 11:30, and rode a bike home. It started raining as we parked the bikes around the corner from our apartment, hot and energized from the ride…. Kids again! Now if only San Francisco were as flat as Barcelona and didn’t have that biting cold wind, maybe it would work there too….