I can’t wait to get up and go to work each day. I’ve clocked in three weeks on the new job and each morning and afternoon a most pleasant journey awaits me.

My (temporary) furnished apartment came equipped with a bike. I restored some life to it as I needed a primary form of transport. It turns out the quickest way to get to work is by pedalling. In the morning I push the bike to the east and pedal for about three minutes through some quiet back streets and alleys and then I’m in biker’s paradise: the promenade along the Rhine. It’s about an 11-minute ride upstream the Rhine to get to the United Nations campus where I work. I take my time and enjoy the river environment and admire the long line of Linden trees along the promenade.

There’s always a fair bit of river traffic (well, every time except for the early morning when I snapped this pic!). Container ships, coal carrying ship, cruise ships. All shapes and sizes of vessels quietly travelling between the Rhine’s mouth in the North Sea and its source in the southeastern Swiss Alps. If a ship is heading upstream I’ll race it on my bike and nearly always win given the strong Rhine current the ship bucks.

On my first few days I struggled to find the old bike legs. All of the Germans whooshed past me. But now after three weeks I keep pace and even pass other cyclists. My bike is a piece of crap though but somehow it gets me where I want to go and I think I’ve gone everywhere in Bonn and neighbouring villages on my weekends. The best thing I love about German cycling on the Rhine Promenade is there is NO LYCRA. Like everyone else I wear my work clothes and work shoes while cycling and don’t have to worry about fitting into those ridiculous tight clothes serious cyclists wear.