Natalie and Shelly Bicycling in Shanghai

Tom bought a "city bike" a week or so ago and that has really allowed Natalie and I to get out and see some of the city. She rides in a carrier on the back. You can see her in the picture here that she enjoys the fresh air, well maybe not so fresh air! On our side of the Haungpu river, everything is pretty new, so they have taken care to add bike lanes on most of the major roads and even on the side roads. While it will be nicer once we both have helmets, it really is pretty safe as long as you pay attention. The thing you have to worry about the most is your bike being stolen after you lock it up. We always have that few moments of dread after you leave the store or restaurant wondering if your bike will still be there. I am usually really careful about trying to put it near where a security dude might be patrolling, but it is still a crap shoot. Most people have at least one bike stolen a year.

Today was our longest ride yet, probably about 10k, all the way to Century Park and the Technology and Science Museum. We took quite a roundabout way to it, riding north through some of the more typical Chinese residential areas which are definitely different from what you see on the new streets by our home. There are little stores selling everything you could possibly want. I saw a small store that looked like it was only selling long pipes, some of them maybe scrap. The whole storefront was only about 10x10 so they had the longer pipes rigged up through the top of roof to enable the security door to be pulled down and cover the exposed doors. I find it amazing how adaptive the Chinese are. The other day I saw a guy filling a bunch of bottles with water he had somehow figured out how to get out of a fire hydrant. He had an old cart and probably had 30-40 big bottles to fill. Funny. Anyway, I digress. So we rode to Thumb Plaza and had lunch. I was trying to find a place to get take-away and then we were going to take it to Century Park and eat it. But the restaurant I picked out really didn't have a good take-away service. It was a nice Italian place though. So Natalie has spaghetti with marinara sauce (surprise!) and I had pasta with a white wine and clam sauce. The clams were in the shells and very fresh. After lunch, we rode on to the Century Park Plaza. This is an area where lots of people fly kites. We stopped and snapped a quick picture and then rode on back home. The weather is starting to warm up, so we hope to get out even more!