June 13 – First Impressions

Well here goes nothing.

Today we went for a fascinating bike tour through the city of Delft. It was definitely a little weird riding a bicycle for the first time in a while, although it soon felt natural. Amongst the sights we saw were the old church (800 years old), the “new” church (400 years old), and we paid a visit to Delft’s own Ikea which was quite large! Aside from these sights, we made the following stops, at which Dr. G pointed out and explained their significance relating to the local transportation methods in Delft.

This first picture is of one of the first stops we made on our tour, the indoor bike parking garage at the Delft main train station. Never before have I seen so many bikes parked inside! One aspect I really appreciated about this parking garage is how they utilized their space so efficiently by stacking the bikes on top of each other. I tested out how one would put their bike on to the top rack and found it to be quite simple as the rack pulls out and then you can pull it down at an angle and easily load and unload your bike from the rack. The following picture depicts how the bikes are loaded onto the rack:

Another interesting thing we learned was about the various signs and their meanings, two that I thought were the most important to remember would be the following:
 This blue sign with the figure of a parent and their child walking means that the area is for walking only, so bikers are supposed dismount and walk their bikes through this area.

This sign with the red trim around a white circle with the word ultgazondred and the diagram of the bike and scooter means that this pathway is for bicycles and scooters. I found this one to be of importance as these bike paths provide fast routes free of other forms of transportation that could slow me down on my bike.

Near the Ikea, Dr. G also showed us a map of all the bike paths in the surrounding area, it was fascinating to see the entire bike path system, I really respect how the Delft city planners in the past designed some of these paths specifically for bikes.