bikes Keyword
Bixi Bikes
Need to get around Montreal? Jump on a Bixi Bike!
These public bikes are a brilliant idea. All you need to do to hire a bike is swipe your credit card. You get a little receipt with a code on it. Next you just choose any bike, enter the code and you’re off riding. The bikes are brilliant. Sturdy and well maintained. Not once in my time here have I encountered a damaged or clunky bike.
The way the model works is that you pay $5 to have access to the Bixi’s for a day (on a casual basis, cheaper for montly and yearly subscriptions) and you can ride the Bixi where ever you like, for how ever long you like with a scaling pricing structure for longer lengths of time. The best part? If you take a bike back to ANY base station within 30 minutes of grabbing one it costs you NOTHING. You can do this all day just taking a bike, riding where you want to go and leaving it. Such a brilliant idea. There are a ridiculous amount of stations and bikes, so you’re never far from a bixi station and they are carefully positioned to utilise high traffic routes but they cover the smaller streets as well.
As a rider I dig the Bixi’s. They are great for the environment, comfortable and best of all they are technically advanced. Check out their website which has stats on how far the bikes have ridden, maps for phones and account management. I freaking love Bixi!
Busy
Some people have complained about my lack of updates of late, and they are perfectly right to do so. I have neglected the Odyssey. Normally brimming with new and exciting adventures, the site has become a stale backwater festering with a quagmire of posts about drinking and lame stories of dead dogs and rocky outcrops.
Writing on the road can be hard. It is often difficult to be creative and most importantly: interesting after a day of adventuring. Most often I pick up the laptop with good intentions but all I want to do is sleep. One thing to note is that, while my lack of updates may have fallen over the last week, my days have been plenty busy.
I am in Holland now, having arrived at Schipol on Monday last week. The weather that day was beautifully warm and sunny, especially compared to the misery that was London weather. The good weather hasn’t let up since I have been here, which I am told is quite strange. My first week in Holland saw my Dad’s friend Paul taking me all over the country to see various sights. Storm doors, places in my family history, beaches, famous cities and towns. We even rode a good 50km’s on a pushy. We caught up with Henk, Jenny and their daughter Jessica in Olddorp where I dunked my toes into the freezing north sea. I caught up with my Dad’s Nephew and his Aunty and saw the tulips.
On the weekend I attended a party for one of Paul’s friends birthdays and had a great time playing Wii with kids and old’s alike. I helped Paul look after a garden of one his friends and on Sunday had a drink at a restaurant with Marion and Martine near where I am staying at which Paul lost his camera. I met Paul’s son and his wife and I cooked schnitzel for the lot of ‘em.
This Monday Paul had to go back to work, so Marion and Martine became my guides. On Monday they took me to the wonderful Madurodam where I saw all of Holland in just a few short hours. Tuesday was Martine’s Birthday so the day was spent celebrating that in the sun. Wednesday we adventured to Amsterdam where I walked the red light district, attempted to apply for my Italian passport and did a little shopping. Thursday I relaxed, gave Marion a hand with getting some plants for the garden and had an icecream at Boskoop.
So as you can see I’ve been pretty busy. I’ll try to write up some articles about some of the more interesting things I’ve just mentioned so expect to see them in the next few hours. For now: enjoy some of the photos I’ve taken from around Holland!