Tuesday 21/04/2020

One of the shiniest glimmers of hope that normal life is creeping back towards us has remerged on the streets today and the sight of it was enough to almost reduce me to tears of joy… Madrid’s bicycle rental service, of which I am one of the biggest fans, has just redistributed their fleet around the city centre. I’ve been using these nifty electric bikes since I got to Spain and, like for all of the car-less Madrileños, they are the ultimate way to get around Madrid’s little city centre. They mean you can often avoid hopping on the metro for annoyingly short journeys, instead opting for a darting journey above ground. But these liberating, two-wheeled machines are much more than a way of just getting from A to B. They are a symbol of freedom and conjure memories of carefree summer days, whizzing through the cobbled streets with friends after a sun-drenched afternoon in the park. Seeing the bikes today made me long for these days and miss my friends.