Working and Evening Bike Adventure

When in Sydney, I noticed the people were all pretty dressed up for work compared to American standards.  Granted, I was mostly in the 'CBD', central business district - pretty much what we call downtown.

When in Melbourne, the morning after going to the Aussi Open and before heading back to Sydney, I chilled in a coffee shop near the Southern Cross train station, one of the big main stations in Melbourne.

And while I was there around 8:30 till 10 ish, I was blown away by the amount of peeps all dressed up for work.  This may reveal that I seriously need to get out into the real world back in the US, but seriously.  Every time the traffic light changed, swarms of suits, high heels, mostly black polyester, silk, and other dress-up material would cross the street coming from the direction of the train station.  It amazed me -  all the dressed-up-ness and that so many people were coming from the train station.  Like an army of work people that kept coming in droves.  All walking to work.

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Jump forward to that afternoon, back in Sydney.  With Marilyn at work till 9pm, and Vladimir out running errands, I had some free time on my hands.  Vladimir encouraged me to go for a bike ride.  I was a little hesitant at first .... left side of the road, bike I'm not used to, city I'm not used to .... I kinda started piling up the excuses in my head.  But, with nothing else to do, I headed out.  And boy, am I glad I did.  I had planned out a route that, on the Sydney cycling map, was a green dashed line all the way along the Harbor (meaning it was a separate bike lane along low to medium traffic roads).

I had no idea what a treat I was in for.  First, it was a wonderful pedestrian and cycle trail, with trail map signage every so often.  I got to the harbor and was treated to an awesome view of the Anzac bridge.  The view would pretty much follow me all the way to the part where I actually crossed the bridge.  Once I got closer to the bridge, there were tons of bikers and runners.  Bike commuters on their way home from work.  And, something Marilyn had told me about but I had yet to experience: people running to and from work, all sporting those backpacks with the waist and chest straps.... running.  Mostly in dri-fit shorts and shirts, with backpacks.  Running, home from work.  Impressive.  And, back to those bikers.  Dang!!  They be flying'!  Going over the bridge, there was a separated lane for bikers/pedestrians from the main lanes of traffic.  Since most people were coming from the city, traffic in the one direction was pretty heavy.  The bikers, passing walkers and runners, would fly down the other lane (the one I was conveniently in).  It felt like we were playing chicken, seeing who would ditch first.  Of course, they always slid over to their lane again, sliding right in front of a runner just in time :)