When Ricardo Reinoso-Rondinel moved to Delft from his native Peru one and a half years ago naturally, he bought a bike. But the police ended up taking that bike from the train station because it was illegally parked. Unfortunately, it was never recovered.
Delen
Name: Ricardo Reinoso-Rondinel (Peru, Civil and Geosciences, Ph.D. candidate)
Price: €450
Brand: Batavus
Striking Feature: High quality
So about six months ago he bought a used bike in good condition. He chose it because it was a good quality. “I do not have to go to the bike repair shop every time as is the case for cheap bikes,” he said. Reinoso-Rondinel uses his Batavus for daily commuting between his house in Delft and the TU Delft campus.
In fact, friends often compliment him for having such a nice bike. “They want to park their non-luxury bikes next to mine because they think that thieves will choose my bike instead of theirs,” he says.
However not everyone he encounters has been so complimentary. One night, Reinoso-Rondinel had a close call while cycling. He was on his way from campus to the center of Delft around midnight when he almost collided with a scooter. “I couldn’t see her because the bike road was curved and she was going fast,” he explained. Luckily, the driver of the scooter slowed in time for him to maneuver back into his own lane.
But that’s not where the story ends. “Then I saw her coming to me,” he said, “so I stopped my bike and my friends did as well. I said sorry but she started yelling at me and saying non-friendly Dutch sentences,” he goes on. He tried to get her to listen, but apparently she would not stop yelling. “So I said a couple of famous English words and I took my bike and we left her screaming in the middle of the street.”
When asked what he thinks about cycling in the Netherlands he responds, “I think bike roads and signs are very clear but you have to watch out for Dutch scooter girls.”
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