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The joys of winter
So, we've been having a bit of actual winter weather here. As usual traffic broke down as the result.
Monday I was supposed to meet with the rest of my Japanese class at the movies. All the snow from last week had melted over the weekend and I was looking forward to a nice half-hour bike ride, alas when I went outside to unlock my bike everything was covered by two inches of snow again, totally out of the blue. I recited the Westphalien bicyclist's mantra ("We're not made of sugar, after all") and got on the bike, but I gave up after half a mile because the snow was still coming down and melting on my thighs, yuck, the flakes were blowing in my face and I just knew that by the time I made it to the theater I'd have turned into an icycle. So I went back and phoned a friend who was going by car whether he could give me a ride.
We didn't make it much further than I had before. All the cars were crawling along at minimum speed. You could walk faster. Every once in a while a car would start sliding to the right. Even while standing. So we gave up, went back and watched the first ep of Fullmetal Alchemist instead. I read online that during the first hour there had been 50 traffic accidents within city borders so staying at home was definitely the right call.
That was Monday. So when they predicted fresh snow for Thursday I wasn't optimistic about my yoga class. I tried the bike anyway, but this time I made it only about 100 meters, then I locked it and waited for the bus. Surprisingly the buses were running, if not exactly on time. Eventually a bus came and the driver announced that the previous bus hadn't come because it had ended up in a ditch somewhere.
Every time the bus stopped more people squeezed in, all the stranded bikers and car drivers. The whole trip took well over an hour. After class I walked back home and was actually faster. It was a lovely walk too, with all the fresh snow, no cars, just lots of people walking. Everybody I saw seemed in a happy bubbly mood, just enjoying the beautiful night. I wished for my camera. I've never seen so many people just walking along the streets. (Also never seen so few bikes.)
Now, mind, this is six inches tops we're talking about here. I gotta wonder what people do in places where they get ten times that. I suspect we're just particularly bad at coping with the white stuff.
Today I wanted to go bouldering and this time I didn't even try the bike, I just walked. Took longer than I thought - over an hour each way. Plus an hour bouldering, I was totally beat when I got back. Feels great, but next time I'll take the bike again. Or try to borrow someone's skies or something. Anyway, I did take some pictures along the way. As you can see, it's really not dramatic amounts of snow...
These are all kind of dark. They were taken between 3:30 and 4:00 pm... I left too late and lost most of the daylight. (Only a few more days to solstice!)
although I think it wasn't quite this dark. I need more practice with this camera. I'd forgotten everything about shutter speed and aperture so I switched it back to auto.
This is what the bike lanes look like. Meh.
... and here's one of the same tree two hours later
Anyway, bouldering was fun. I was a bit dismayed when I found that a fave route I'd been working on has been taken down - they periodically change the holds so it won't get boring for the regulars. But at least I'd already managed that baby once. And in exchange I got two new routes now that are difficult but probably doable at my level with a bit of practice, so I'm looking forward to sinking my teeth into those problems.
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I suspect they have more snowplows and such, and a routine. Also, maybe they aren't as fussy about potentially damaging trees with salt, so that they spread salt making the stuff melt rather than just sprinkling split over everything. I actually suspect that the snow clearing service of our building is using salt illegally, because yesterday afternoon the pavement in front of our house was almost completely snow free and stayed that way while it was snowing and there were at least five centimeters of snow everywhere else. No way that happens just with sand or grit.
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They stopped doing anything, in fact - there are a few half-hearted handfuls of gravel on some of the roads, but nothing else. I wonder if the city even owns a snow plow or the like.
Even in stores it's almost impossible to get anything other than salt to clear the sidewalks. (Except now of course you can't get salt any more either because it's sold out.) I always found it baffling that not only do you not get fined if you use salt, they encourage people to do it.
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http://www.hamburg.de/hamburg-nord/umwelt-gesundheit/2035042/streusalz-nicht-erlaubt-auf-winterstrassen.html
I think it may be used on main roads with heavy traffic, but then only on the street, and that is not on side streets, they don't clear there. Here they do have heavy machinery, according to their website 120 of these combination plow/grit trucks, and after the chaos last year they have implemented an emergency hotline where you can report dangerous areas that need clearing, with some sort of attached "task force" (seriously they are calling it task force in best Denglisch).
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I HATE SNOW if I have to be in it =D