Women’s cycle ride on a Sunday

Dutch child minder, Gerina Pijkeren, joined us for the first of our Women on Wheels rides on 7 March. This is her story...

group-meeting-at-porthill-bridge I went on a beautiful Sunday morning to the Quarry in Shrewsbury where a cycle ride for women should start. They asked me to tell my impressions of the day.

First a little bit about myself, I am Gerina and I am from Holland, and this is my second year in England, first I was working as au pair and now as a childminder.

In Holland we are used to bikes and cycling. There are lots of cycle paths and a lot of people are cycling everywhere, to school, to work or just for pleasure. I love cycling so when I came here I wanted to cycle as well, but it is different. First there are hills and mountains where Holland is all flat. And in England there are not so much cycle paths everywhere, so it is a bit more dangerous to cycle. And especially for women with maybe little children it is not that easy to go on the bike. So it is the idea to get the women on the bike.

cycling-along-river So I heard about the women's cycle ride and I thought I go. So I went and the weather was great, we started in the Quarry and first Emma made a nice picture from all of us, and then we went along the river, where it was quite busy with people who were walking there.

Then we cycled to the sports village, where we had our first stop. We went inside and had a nice drink and we talked about cycling and Emma had some folders to share. After a while we went on our bikes again and now we came along an old canal, and Emma told me a bit about the history of the canal, that was a path where you can't come by car, so that was pure nature, and then we went on little paths, and later came on the main road.

There we had to be careful with cars. As there were no cycle paths we had to cycle behind each other, but after a little while we came on another road were it was not so busy, so we could cycle next to each other and we could talk to each other. And we stopped quite a few times, because we had to wait sometimes for the last one and we had to look for the route where to go. So it was an easy going ride.

As we went on the route there came a few hills as well, and then on the top we had a nice view, and as the road went on we came through a little village (Upton Magna), and I really liked to cycle through there, nice cottages and the atmosphere. I really like the English villages, it is just the look, cottages with flowers and the black and white houses.

attingham-park Then we went on to Attingham Park, and we had a lunch stop in Attingham Park. We sat down in the sun, and had our sandwiches and it was nice to come off the bike for a moment. It was really lovely to just sit down and have a nice chat together.

When we finished our lunch, we went back to our bikes and we set off on the way to Shrewsbury, but not on the main road. We went over the bridge, and we took quiet roads, there were some steep hills and that was quite hard to get to the top, but when we came at the top, first you get a lovely view and second when you go down, that is such a great feeling! Just sit on your bike and do nothing than enjoy, the bike goes by itself.

Later on we met the Shrewsbury Cycle Club, they were on a cycle ride as well, and we stopped and we had a nice chat. One of them had a Dutch bike, and that was nice to see, a man on a 'sit up' bike, that is so Dutch! And I thought it was great to see an English man on a Dutch bike.

After a nice stop we went on for the last bit of the route towards Shrewsbury town. We came on a cycle path through Shrewsbury and there I stopped, because we came along that part of Shrewsbury where I live, so I went off.

rowers-on-the-severn All I can say, I really enjoyed it, and it is a great idea to get women on the bike! There is nothing to worry about, everybody can take their bike and join us. In my opinion there are only positive aspects to cycle, it is healthy, you can see a lot more from your environment/surroundings, and as you cycle you can chat together, everybody can cycle at their own speed, and there is a guide who is leading and telling something about the route. I think England is really beautiful, so get your bikes ready for the next cycle ride!!