Getting back on the bike brings back a flood of memories both good and bad. Here's just some of the things I have learned to love and loathe.
Love: that feeling of freedom, everything you need is with you. It's so liberating.
Love: crazy sights, keep your eyes peeled you never know what you will see. Yesterday for example I saw a man riding a bike, smoking a pipe. Another guy was riding to golf, towing his golf clubs on a buggy behind his bicycle, the cycle path went under the runway at Schipol airport and someone was driving a Rolls Royce ute.
Love: eating. Enough said.
Love: weather, riding through long summer days, green fields, flowers everywhere and warm temperatures.
Hate: weather, ferocious headwinds and random rainstorms, crazy cold summer days where temperatures can be 5 degrees.
Love: the sense of achievement when arriving in a new city after naviguessing your way from point a to b.
Love: the feeling of exhaustion at the end of the day and arriving at a hotel where all you want is a bed and a shower.
Love: thinking time, the ideas, the internal conversations and the daydreams you have.
Love: bragging rights.
Love: the sweeping downhills.
Love: riding straight into the middle if the action no need to look for parking.
Hate: the cobble stones.
Hate: getting lost, getting lost when I'm tired, hungry, wet or cold. Ok being lost at any stage.
Hate: the sore bum, the cold toes, the taste of suncream, chapped lips, the hunger, the occasional stomach cramps, the tired legs, general achiness, never-ending rolling hills.
Love: sharing all of the above with my best friend.