When the busy summer season hits Europe, many cities increasingly become, in the words of Thomas Friedman, hot, flat, and crowded. This is especially true for travelers encountering a city for the first time on a walking tour: fatigue can quickly set in from the heat and the never-ending march from one major landmark to another. And crowded tour group can often make things worse, as people jostle together on hot streets to hear a guide’s explanation, or stand in long lines waiting to enter popular sites and attractions.
As an antidote to the walking malaise, touring a city by bicycle is becoming a new summertime favorite. The most addictive thing about traveling by bicycle, as enthusiasts of long-distance bicycling will confirm, is the wonderful balance between freedom of movement and the ability to interact with the environment around you. In a tour bus or car, even if sitting on an exposed upper deck, you’re somewhat cut off from the sights you’re seeing, and travel in a sealed capsule on a river of cars. A walking tour, on the other hand, can’t cover much ground without being exhausting and can easily turn miserable in the summer heat. On a bicycle, you can avoid all these pitfalls: the ground melts away beneath your wheels as you travel next to or in the midst of pedestrians, coasting by famous sights and through neighborhoods, soaking up the local atmosphere as you pass residents going about their daily lives. Some tour companies offer self-guided tours, but most are led by an assertive, informative guide who will lead you safely through traffic and provide background on what you’re seeing during short stops along the way.
There are several different urban bicycle tour companies that operate in Europe, but all tours have many similarities, The bicycles are usually ultra-comfortable cruisers, which allow the rider to
sit in an upright position on a cushy seat; most bikes allow women to ride while wearing skirts or dresses. All tours try to find routes that pass by points of interest but keep to bicycle-friendly roads or dedicated bike paths. In Europe, this isn’t too difficult: many European cities have a long history of urban bicycling and are designed accordingly (some cities, like Rome, will require more street-smarts than others). The best part about bicycling is that it’s fun and easy. It’s much less strenuous to pedal through a city for a few hours than to walk it, since you’ll be coasting about half the time and won’t have to exert yourself on hills, which tour companies strive to avoid.
The downside to biking through a city? You can’t take photographs as you ride, though it is easy enough to pull to the side of the road and snap a few pictures if you feel inspired. It’s also hard to for a guide to talk while biking, so your information will only occur at periodic stops. But despite these minor inconveniences, bicycling is far superior to walking in the summer heat, and will make your first visit to a city more pleasurable and illuminating.
Ready to have some fun on two wheels? The following bike tour companies can help you get around these major European cities:
Amsterdam: Mike’s Bike Tours, www.mikesbiketoursamsterdam.com, +31-20-622-7070
Paris, Berlin, Barcelona: Fat Tire Bike Tours, www.fattirebiketours.com, (866) 614-6218
London: The London Bicycle Tour Company, www.londonbicycle.com, +44-20-7928-6838
Rome, Florence: Cruiser Bike Tours, www.romecruiserbiketours.com, +39-055-239-8855
Munich: Rad City Bike Tours, www.radcitybiketours.com, +49-172-168-9333
By Caedmon Haas, Editorial
a. As the South Africans use this tourney to tune up for the 2010 World Cup, other soccer leagues continue to play on in almost every country around the world. Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) is no exception. In a place where there are laws against gatherings of more than five people at one time, crowds at soccer matches would definitely be under watch in Burma (via Deadspin & the WSJ.)