Lake Genval

In middle June, the cycling subcommittee organized a trip to Lake Genval. It is located around 25km away from Brussels, so a group of us brave trainees decided to endeavour the task of cycling 50km in one day, with city bikes, between woods and secondary lanes. It was tiring, but a lot of fun! We took our food to pic-nic at the lake and saw some amazing natural landscapes on our way there. It's a great idea for a day trip (with or without bikes) from Brussels. This was the way we took:

National Botanic Garden of Belgium

A couple of weeks ago, on a sunny day, I went to visit the National Botanic Garden of Belgium. I went by bike, as the visit was part of a cycling activity, and we departed from the Central Station with bikes rented with Point Velo (9 euros for the whole day). We cycled around 10km towards Meise, which is where the garden is located (already outside of Brussels actually). The entrance costs 6 euros and it's a beautiful garden to spend a day in, as there are plenty of things to see: greenhouses with exquisite plants, a charrette pulled by horses that goes around the garden and to which you can hop-in and hop-off, a lake and a small castle. In the end, we returned by riding our bikes the 10km back.

It was a great way of spending a sunny day! The garden is amazing and you can take food with you and make a pic-nic there (although there's also a cafe near the lake that sells food and drinks).

Les Petits Riens

Les Petits Riens is a company of social economy. They collect goods donated by people and distribute them to others in need, or sell them to use the money for social projects. I casually came across their shop last Saturday in Chatelain, saw the movement of people coming and going and decided to go in to take a look (this is their central shop, but they have many others).

This is a three stores high big shop that sells second hand goods of everything you can imagine: furniture, kitchenware, sports accessories, books, cds, dvds, hi-fi equipment, toys, clothes, you name it. I thought it was particularly interesting for people moving to Brussels, because you can find lots of furniture and things for the house for really low prices. And I believe I saw a poster saying that for large items they can carry them to your house!

Next to it they also have a shop called Bike Paradise, where they sell second hand bikes and have a poster saying "buy a bike when you arrive and we'll buy it back from you when you leave" and then the reference to ask inside for the conditions and info on this. It may be useful for those considering buying a bike here just for a short period of time!

Cycling

"Oh well, I thought this was going to be easier!". This was my first thought when I arrived in Brussels and saw its crowded streets and the absence of bike lanes. As a southern european girl, coming from a country where almost no-one uses a bike in the cities, but having traveled thoroughly through central Europe and having fallen in love with the car free cities of The Netherlands, I had this idea that I was going to get a bike as soon as I arrived to Brussels to cycle to work everyday and to wander around in its parks and green areas during the weekend. After a week here, I have completly changed my mind.

Brussels is a city with lots of contruction work going on. And very crowded in the center, specially in the European Quarter and specially at rush hours. Which makes it impossiblefor me to do it, as such is precisely the area and the times of the day in which I was interested in cycling. Only some streets have bike lanes, most of them don't. And even if I could easily do a part of the way by bike, then, as I would approach the most crowded areas, it would be impossible to contour all these obstacles: construction works, cars and people. Aditionaly, it often rains here, so that adds another plus to the crashing of my dream. So, for now I'll just be a walker and a user of the public transportation and maybe on the weekends in some parks I'll try to cycle a bit.

However, I still see some adventurous ones who bike everyday and maybe if you're used to do it in your country, you would like to give it a try here as well. For that, you have 3 options:

• Buy your own bike. There's plenty of shops which sell them and you can try to find youserlf an used one for a cheaper price (I met a girl who bought hers for just 20€!). I've heard it's usual to have your bike stolen, though, so you may want to consider option number 2.
• Use the Villo! system. You have bike stations all over the city (always next to the metro stations and more) and for just 32€ a year you get a card at home to use all these bikes, being the first half an hour of use for free. If you use it for more than half an hour each time, a small rate is charged for any additional period of half an hour.
• If you're working in the Commission, you have access to Commission bikes for free! That's something they explain to you in the first days of presentations and it seems to be the best option.

So, either way, if you start this endeavour of cycling in Brussels, good luck and use a helmet! Don't blame me and the suggestions herewith for any possible injuries ;)