Day 20- Bike

So Monday has turned into the day to dread. It's homework day, grocery shopping and cleaning. So I try to wake up early and get ahead start. So the grocery store is all the way on the other side of town, outside the wall. If we buy groceries inside the wall of Lucca it's a lot more expensive. So it takes about 20 minutes to walk there. So going is fine, but coming back with a backpack full of groceries and bags in hand make the trip seem like forever. So I'm struggling with the concept of buying as you need. I like to make one trip for a couple of weeks.

This week I ask one of the girls to borrow her bike. What an adventure that was. So inside the walls of Lucca where we are staying, they really try to reserve the original look of the town. So the roads are really narrow and made mostly of cobble stone. So the road is shared by cars, bikes and people walking. So when you hear the horn, you move to the side. Some streets are so narrow that when a car goes by (only one car can be on the road at a time) I stop in fear of being hit. So some streets have sidewalks, but most of the time so many bikes are parked on them u have to walk in the street. So outside the wall of Lucca (new Lucca), there are regular streets and side walks.

So I can't remember the last time I road a real bike (exercise machines doesn't quite count). I felt a little rusty, but not falling over or anything. Then having to navigate through the people was a whole another thing. All I can say is that I'm not sure about getting a bike. Since the bike shop didn't give us a group discount, I kind of put it off. Besides I really like walking, it's like being in New York, a sense of being at home.

So I make it through, but just barely. Now once I got on the path to go outside the wall, it was great, not many people, I could pick up speed. Then when I put the bottles of water in the basket and the bags on the handle bars, it was so different. Now when I rung my bell, nobody moved for me. In addition, my friend's bike the bell just rings all the time due to the cobble stone jerking the bike around. So I had to find some side streets where there weren't that many people around. The bike was also heavier on one side, I tried to balance the weight, but it didn't work out too well with the water bouncing around in the basket.

Also the big thing in Lucca is to stop while you are walking to look in the shop windows. So many people don't even care about who is behind them or when they start walking again they just walk. Being on the bike made it 10 times more irritating!!! I think I'm gonna stay walking, a little less stressful.