Part of my wonderful birthday surprise from dear fiancé was the awesome gift of a new bicycle! He had given me a region free DVD player (so now I can watch all my German DVDs (that are all in Germany,… minor detail)!!) and a massage gift certificate earlier in the evening and taken me to a restaurant I had been meaning to try forever so quite frankly, I thought my birthday was awesome and done with. Oh no. We came back home after dinner and he called me down into the den where he was waiting with a beautiful, super fancy hybrid bike. Swoon!

My first thought was “Oh sweeeet! Now I don’t have to research bikes to buy one!” Hehe. I had been wanting to get one this summer but had been dreading doing the research what with all the wedding prep. Mind you this is the first time I’ve had a bike in forever! I don’t even think I had one in college but perhaps I had one in Hamburg for a very short period of time. And all those bike’s I had had were completely functioning right outside the box. Apparently that’s not the case with fancy bikes. The babe was busy over the next couple of days to mount a kickstand and lights and a lock (don’t think we’ve figured out how to mount that one just yet. YOU’D THINK!!).

But finally everything was put together and I had gloves and a helmet (Don’t ride without one peeps! Don’t want your noggin to be smashed!). So off we went! I was sooooo nervous (and giddy – hello 32 year old child). Shifting gears?! I’ve never had a bike with more than 8 gears and I’d always been able to break by trying to pedal backwards. But, thankfully, that wasn’t hard and it really is like the saying – you never forget how to ride a bike! This one translates beautifully into German, too, although we never “unlearn” how to ride a bike. No training wheels needed!

So we’re excited to go on bike rides in our neighborhood, to visit our friends who just moved a mile and a half away from us, and to drive up to the bar that’s a mile and a half in the other direction. We’ve mapped out parks and the Virginia Kreeper Trail and look forward to being active outdoors together. What a great gift!