Day 1 - 11.5 miles

Biking to Uster:

I've been working in Uster - a town of 32,577 - since October 2012 and until today, only knew 3 streets within its borders. I teach English at a language school there. 

Often in the units of our English books, information will be offered about the UK or US and then the question "what's it like where you're from?"will be asked. The books are British and are speaking to an imaginary classroom of multi-national immigrants to Great Britain. 

When I ask this question of my students, their answers all make me say "really?" They're all from the area and speak about the nearby castle, waterfront and historical factory as if they're known to the whole world.  

Today, when I passed the "DANKE!" sign of Dübendorf (including emoticon), I entered Uster and thought, "Really? Uster is this pretty?" I'm on day one of bike to work month and will am off to a gentle start. I rode my bike to the farthest train station in the city (Stadelhofen) and got on a train for two stops, where I got off at Dübendorf (tomorrow I'll get out at the first stop - Stettbach.)

What I'm doing this month is pretty unremarkable. I know people who regularly bike from Bern to Zürich (over 100km) just to visit friends. If you average the miles I'll ride this month it's a pittance in comparison to the folks I know who commute by bike every day, no matter the weather.

For me, however, it's a big deal. I'm learning the geography of my daily life.  I'm exercising after a few months of the blues and lack of motivation led me away from the gym and into some pretty poor shape; and I'm exorcising an increasing nervousness that has reoccurred recently when I'm city cycling. (An insecure cyclist is of course a dangerous cyclist and I need to break this vicious cycle.)

Most of my route is rural and beautiful. I pass a nature reserve, vineyards, a donkey farm (yucky!) and a beautiful lake I'd only ever seen from the opposite coast before. 

It begins with a 4.5 km ride through the city along a river, through a tunnel and along a lake. I then ride a train to avoid an insane hill. 

The ride ends, I discovered, with a number of rotaries (one is pentagonal!!!) All told, I rode 11.15 miles on my way to and from work today. I'll be upping that to 13 miles 3 days a week for the rest of the month and possibly more on the days when I finish work before 9pm and can ride a larger portion home.) I'd love to go exclusively on bike at least once or twice this month, but my big goal will be to ride the more doable bit regularly once the month is over. My time was poor today, but that was mostly due to map confusion. I'm guessing that I'll decrease my time more and more as the month goes on.

Bike with basket, school bag and gym bag at Bahnhof Stadelhofen

picturesque views on my way

The over-filled Greifensee (the rivers and lakes in Switzerland are all spilling over)

stinky donkey farm