A love letter to my favourite Fahrradstraße in Hamburg

I grew up watching cartoons on Fox Kids, like The Kids from Room 402, What’s with Andy?, and Life with Louie. One thing I often saw in these cartoons was children going to school by bike. Sadly, this was not common in Turkey, where I grew up, because the roads were not safe for cycling.

I got my first real bike, a Bianchi, when I was 10. Most of the time, I cycled with my friends in a big park in our neighbourhood during the summer. Even though my school was close and many people walked there, I do not remember seeing a single child cycling to school. This stayed with me. Maybe I could not cycle to school, but I wanted to cycle to work in the future.

When I first came to Hamburg for a summer internship in 2017, I was amazed by the cycling infrastructure. Hamburg was the first city I visited outside of Turkey. Seeing people cycle to school and work made me fall in love with the city.

That same summer, another intern, who later became my friend, and I wanted to go on a cycling trip. We rented bikes from StadtRAD and cycled towards Moorfleet. Cycling next to a river already felt special to me, but seeing places that were only easy to reach by bike made me think that a bike can give you so much freedom.

In 2018, I moved to Hamburg for work. Just one week later, I bought a bike. Since then, I have been cycling in Hamburg. I do not have the exact numbers for all those years, but at the end of August 2022, I bought an e-bike. Since then, I can see that I have cycled more than 5.000 km in the city.

I really love cycling. I almost always cycle and often do not even use public transport. I have cycled under the sun, in heavy rain, in strong wind, and even in snow. I would not recommend cycling in snow, though, because steering becomes quite hard and snow gets stuck in your mudguards.

Since I moved here, I can see that the cycling infrastructure has been getting better and better. Of course, Hamburg probably still cannot compete with cities in the Netherlands. But commuting by bike has become more enjoyable.

When I commute, I do not always choose the shortest route. I also try to choose the route I enjoy the most. There is one place I often choose when I go to the city centre, even if it makes my trip a bit longer. I especially choose it when the weather is nice. That place is the Fahrradstraße on Alsterrufer and Harvestehuder Weg, next to the Alster.