- ride
- (82)
-
Paris may have gone cycle-mad this summer with Velib', but they are Jean-ny come lately compared with Strasbourg - officially France's first city of cycling.
After all that lolling about in comfort on the train anticipating a bit of stork-spotting and flammekueche-chomping (well-known top activities in Strasbourg), what better way to explore the city than from its 480km cycle network – and it’s flat! Plan your trip before you leave with the comprehensive help of www.velolocation.net - a bike-rental service managed by Vélo-Emploi and supported by Strasbourg city council. As their motto says, "Good bicycles for true jobs".
Take advantage of the city's bicycle scheme. Cyclocity points all around the centre and are marked on tourist maps.
You pay atround 1Eur/hr and drop bike off at a convenient point when you've finished with it.
Forget about trams, trains, buses or taxis while you're in Amsterdam. Hire a bike or walk, you'll find loads of places you'd have missed otherwise.
Rent a bike and cycle to the museum of Electricity, near to the zoo.
A knock on the door and several minutes later it's opened by dishevelled caretaker. It's all a little unpromising, but head to the rear hall and you're met by the sight of enormous generators, weird cars, bikes, street-lamps, enough to distract you from the fact you're in an electricity museum.
A great find, and an offbeat excursion for a morning away from the red-light hustle.
Hire a bike from Mac Bikes, left of Amsterdam Central Station.
When visiting Amsterdam, do like the Dutch do and rent a bike - it's the best way to visit the city.
There is a place called Central Rent a Bike which is quite close to the station at Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal 55-1hg.
Hire a bike from the centre of Amsterdam, and take a leisurely bike ride out to Vondelpark, for some beautiful scenery, parks & lakes.
Make sure you hire a reasonably modern bike though, as the trip may not be very comfortable otherwise!
Try a cycle tour of the city with Paris a velo - c'est sympa!
Tried and tested with initially reluctant friends who later admitted it was the best part of the holiday.
You see so much more and it's better for the environment so what's to lose?
Tours can be arranged in your own language and the tour guides are excellent.
Arrive in Paris and hire one of the city’s (carbon neutral!) self-service bicycles –Vélib’. Locate the cycle station at Gare du Nord and discover – quelle surprise! – they’re all taken.
No worries, there’s another station a short walk away on my road, rue Louis Blanc. But it’s permanently ‘hors service’... Carry on then to the Vélib station at Jaurès for a chat in the long queue before finally getting your hands on the ‘deux roues’.
Cycle along the pretty canal for a picnic at Parc de la Villette before heading back to Jaurés for a canalside drink at the MK2. Voilà!
First by day, and again at night - cheesy and touristy, yes, but utterly breathtaking.
If you go in October or November, take a boat ride in the early morning from Lido back into Venice and watch the light of the water play with the spires and domes. If it's been foggy - all the better. Venice will appear out of the mirage.
I took my two children (aged eight and 11) tobogganing and hired two large wooden sledges. It was great fun and very safe. The scenery is beautiful, but if you’re there in the winter, go early in the morning, as it gets dark very quickly.
The sledge path takes you down the mountain to the metro stop and you just get the train back up the mountain again, as many times as you want.
It’s about £4 for a day pass for the metro and train and about £7 to hire a sledge.
Take the local metro to the top of the toboggan run at Frognerseteren station; but remember go get off the metro briefly at Voksenkollen station to hire your sledges at the Tryvann Winter Park
www.visitoslo.com/
Bogotanos are absurdly proud of the gleaming new Transmilenio bus service, a kind of overground metro. A bendy bus might not seem that exciting, but compared to the insanity of the traditional bus routes, this is travelling in style.
My wife and I did this a few years back. We set out and watched the sunset over the Golden Horn. The ferries themselves are of a shabbily romantic variety, with all walks of Istanbul life crowded aboard.
One word of warning, however: make sure your ferry is returning to Istanbul! With slowly dawning panic, we became aware that our poor grasp of Turkish and ferry routemaps had put us on a one-way trip to the Black Sea.
Once we had realised this, we were halfway down the Bosphorus (having ogled many a fortress along the way) and more than a little worried. Fortunately, it was an all-stopper and we disembarked at an unnamable little town past the glassworks with a lively looking square.
We found a local store where they told us where to find a bus heading back to Taksim Square. Very kindly, they gave us a pair of bus tickets to get back.
Unfortunately, when we caught the bus, it turned out we needed three each! No worries, a collection was taken up and the passengers on the bus made up our deficit! It was amazing to be rescued and no one would accept any payment in exchange for their tickets. We sat sheepishly and grinned like idiots for the whole hour and a half journey back to the city.
It was dark, very late and we were very tired when we got back, but we had had quite an adventure. We will never forget the kindness of the Turkish people!
Eminonu Ferry Terminal by the Galata Bridge
It’s touristy and it’s often chilly but you can’t beat a ride on the canal boats. They ferry tourists on a guided tour by sea around the capital and through the maze of canals. Yes, you get to see The Little Mermaid - don’t worry - although your photo will be populated by tourists on shore doing the same thing as you.
It’s a great way to get acquainted with the city and get a bit of history thrown in - in three languages. I loathe to admit it but even as a local I look forward to having guests from out of town solely because I get to take them on a refreshing canal boat ride.
All the boats depart from Nyhavn - the canal that ends at Kongens Nytorv. Most of them have a hop on - hop off system. Prices vary but count on roughly 30 kroner.
Various companies depart Nyhavn throughout the day.
www.canal-tours.dk/
When you reach the sea you'll be at Muizenberg, the traditional Jewish beach of Cape Town. You'll then pass along the coast through the sea fishing resorts of Kalk Bay and Fish Hoek. You can buy gurnod straight from the boat. The final station is Simonstown which used to be a Royal Navy base. Nearby are the famous penguins. Have a seafood dinner with chilled Cape chardonnay from the neaby vineyards.
For those not quite energetic enough to walk up Table Mountain, take the cable car. As it goes up the car rotates through 360 degrees, so you get all of the view without moving. At the top the views can be spectacular - depending on the weather. Keep an eye on the weather, as the cable car can be closed at short notice, if bad weather is expected. While you're up there, take a guided walk with one of the volunteer guides. You will hear about the flora and fauna but also a lot of information about the rest of the mountain and Cape Town
When you arrive at the airport you have the option of taking a bus, water taxi or an "Alilaguna" boat to Venice. (Alilaguna is the name of the operator.) Especially if you have never been to Venice before, this is a magical way catch your first glimpse of it, unless you are happy and able to pay around £50 for a water taxi. The boat goes round the islands, finally stopping at the Arsenale and San Marco.
To get a great experience of NY, jump on the Staten Island Ferry. It gives you a great view of the downtown skyline, Brooklyn and the Statue of Liberty. Also, it's free, runs every few minutes, and real New Yorkers will be alongside you. Once you get to Staten Island, get right back on a return ferry and enjoy the fab experience again.
To get a similar view, you could take the Statue of Liberty Ferry, which is not cheap and usually has a long queue. Only take that if you want to tour the Statue of Liberty, which is usually full of kids and queues.
Battery Park, which is very downtown; the end of Manhattan. The park and ferry terminal are very well sign posted.
Ride the Stadtbahn (express local trains - not the U-Bahn) from Zoologischer Garten to Berlin Ostbahnhof station for a rooftop view of the many different characters of the city. Start in the heart of the old west and travel via the Tiergarten, new Berlin central station, government district, Freidrichstrasse, Museum Island and Alexanderplatz, ending up in the old East Berlin. Cheap, very frequent and clean. A good alternative is BVG Bus route 100, which links most of the same major sites and sights.
Zoologischer Garten station, just off Kurfurstendamm/Tauentzienstrasse or any S-Bahn station en route, see www.bvg.de for details of Berlin public transport
Is this your business?