Micha and Julie tell us that there is some big, used bike sale on Sunday in Berlin and since this is our last day with our rental car it is perfect timing. We decide to get there early thinking this will be our best shot at getting a good bike. We show up and it is quite empty. Tons of bikes but not tons of people... yet.
Apparently people bring the bikes they want to sell, they pay a commission to the organizers and hundreds of people are able to sell and buy their bikes.
It is actually pretty cool. I'm not a bike person at all. I enjoy riding bikes but know nothing about them and really could care less about what type or even if it has gears - Germany is really REALLY flat. Josie, Benjamin and Marty have much more specific demands on their bikes. There seems to be a lot of bikes for adults but not many for kids and in particular not many for Benjamin's size. He borrowed a bike from a friend for the past few months in Seattle that had gears and he was not going to go with anything less in Berlin.
A bike without gears was a definite downgrade in his opinion. The whole set up was pretty cool. You browse through aisles of bikes. If you like one and want to try it out you push it out to an open square and when exiting you hand over your ID to a guy standing at the entrance/exit. Then you can ride the bike around to see how well you like it. When we first got there the open area was virtually empty but after an hour or so there were dozens of people test riding bikes in this small area. Kind of crazy and kind of cool at the same time.
Marty, Josie and I all end up finding bikes. I was really drawn to the bigger, cruiser type and if they had a basket it was bonus points. I know that is not how you should pick out a bike so I ask Marty and Julie to ride around the bike I have chosen a bit to get their opinions. At first they say the gears stick a bit so the bike seller puts some oil on it and then it seems fine. Marty and Josie decide on their bikes. Josie's criteria was color and it had to have gears and not look like any of the old lady, bikes that I liked. We pay and head toward the car to try to figure out how to transport them back to our house. Benjamin, of course, is very upset that we all got a bike except him and we try to explain that we will keep looking for a bike for him. Hard for a 7 year old to really understand this concept while he watches the rest of his family walk away with new (to us) bikes. Poor guy. He REALLY REALLY wanted a bike. As we are walking to the car I notice something is sticking with one of the wheels on my bike. Great! We just paid for it and we figured they would just say all sales were final. Julie to the rescue again. She helps us bring it to the seller who tells us that her husband has a bike shop and can fix it up, no problem. We load my bike into the car and Marty and Benjamin head to the bike shop in hopes of fixing my bike and finding one for Benjamin. Julie walks with Josie and me to a train station and helps get Josie and I on the correct train to our house. I'm pushing Marty's bike which is 10 sizes too big for me.
He is 6 foot 5 and I am 5 foot 1 - and yes I looked like I was pushing a gigantic bike. Because it is! Once we get off the train at our stop I tell Josie she can ride ahead to our house, about 1 mile away. She already knows the route and is quite happy for this new freedom. Things really are different here with how much freedom children are given at younger ages. Marty and Benjamin get home a bit later with my bike perfectly fixed and they found a sweet bike for Benjamin. Unfortunately upon riding it up an down our street the chain falls off and gets stuck in the gears. Then one of the pedals falls off then the handle bars come loose. What the heck?? Thankfully, Marty is pretty handy and puts it back together (mostly) but I think it still needs to go to the shop for a once over. We have to return the rental car and so we all load up for one last joy ride and then take the bus back. We decide to eat on the way home and is par for the course deciding what to eat causes a family fight. We end up ordering from some burrito type place. It turns out to be quite gross, unfortunately. I need to always remember that Germans CANNOT make Mexican food or even anything that comes close to it. We return home and we are all utterly exhausted. It has been one of the fullest, most productive and tiring weeks of our lives. We are all in grumpy moods and we end up all going to bed with headaches.
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