Means of Transport

While walking everywhere, I've noticed a propensity among Germans to find any alternative to relying upon feet alone.  The following is a short inventory of representatives of various modes of transport that I have seen since coming here:

The Skateboarder

I like the skateboarders close to Bismarkplatz because they are resilient.

Twice in six months have I seen one of them flip his board and land on it again, rather than land just beside it with a frustrated grunt, or fail to effect any sort of flipping at all.

We were all so shocked on those two occasions when it worked that I don't think any of us knew what to do.

I pretended not to notice in case clapping would have seemed sarcastic.

The Swivel-Boarder

I tried to draw this after seeing one at a great distance.

As far as I could tell, by gyrating his body he was able to propel himself in a perpendicular direction.

It looks a bit like surfing, which goes to show that a lot of the coolness of surfing originates from the water.

The Scooter

When I first saw her scooting past me while I was on my way to work, I remember thinking to myself that it looked quite silly for a fully-grown woman to be on a scooter, and I wondered why she did it.

By the time I had finished verbalising this thought in the privacy of my mind, she was at the end of the street and I was still grumpily lumbering along.

Particularly good for someone with one energetic leg, and one strong, but lazy, leg.

The Unicyclist

Apparently these were all the rage in Heidelberg for a while.

Not outrageously practical, but not bad.  This typically looks slower than other options, except when one is about to fall off, when it can be very fast.

(It seems that whether one actually is moving in the desired direction of motion or quite the opposite at any given moment on a unicycle can only be calculated probabilistically - but the experienced unicyclist usually gets there in the end, albeit after more peddling than was strictly necessary.)

The Cyclist I: The Arm Folder

What happens when ordinary cycling is practiced by the extraordinary.
For when a loss of control and a considerable amount of extra wobbling is deemed an acceptable price to pay for a look of skill and forced nonchalance.

The Cyclist II: The Promiscuous Leg

The most widespread of all the 'looks', and simultaneously my most and least favourite.
It is ideal for opponents of symmetry, or anyone with only one presentable leg.