American way of bicycling
Being used to the bike pads and trails in the Netherlands, we had to get used to the American way of bicycling: take your bikes to a trail by car, cycle a few miles up and down the trail and then head home.
When I told a friend we first cycled about nine miles from our home to the Los Gatos Creek Trail to ride that trail, she said we were crazy. She thought we had to drive on the highway to get there. Actually, San Jose has a lot of nice bike trails. OK, some are adjacent to a highway, but the trails are only for bicyclists and hikers and often in a 'green zone'.
As long as we can explore the area on our bikes, that's what we love to do. There will come a day (soon?) we have to broaden our horizon and we do have to drive to new trails by car. Then we'll have to get some new bikes too. Our Dutch city bikes only have seven gears, that's great for biking in the valley, but not so in the surrounding foothills. And maybe we'll even start wearing these silly helmets too...
